To: 999 (all members)
From: K3Y (Lorna Jenne)
Subject: STYLUS INKJET PRINTERS
The Epson Stylus 800 Inkjet Printer
has been on sale for a few years and
now can be bought for £160-180. The New
800+ model seems to be not very
different and the 400 model which
costs about £140 seems to have less
fonts. The 800 is in a robust plastic
case and is 440mm wide, about 280mm
deep + another 140mm for the paper
tray, the height is about 160mm.
Paper can be stacked in the tray (up to
100 sheets) or feed as single sheets
through a slot in the back. An A4
80gms paper is suitable, not a shiny
paper but a slightly absorbent one.
Other weights can be used, the only
problem has been that if the paper is
thinner or been used before, two or
more sheets can be taken in from the
paper tray. Envelopes can be fed in
singly from the back, and even
transparencies (these are very
expensive) can be printed,the ones
used in photocopies can be used if
new. Care must be taken as the ink is
sprayed onto the paper and therefore
needs to dry, even after drying if the
paper gets wet the ink will run.
The ink is supplied in a cartridge
(Black only), it is worth shopping
around for these, Epson have a help
line and will give you details of the
nearest dealer, who may be the
cheapest. I pay about £10 for the ink
cartridge from Sirton in Mitcham, the
only place that is cheaper £10 for two
cartridges is Watford Electronics but
I have had some on order since March
1995!!. I haven't tried refilling but
several firms do offer ink refills for
about £6-7. The cartridge is very easy
to fit and there is an INK OUT light
which flashes when it is nearly empty
and stays on when completely empty.
The Stylus connects to the BBC
with the normal parallel cable (NOT
SUPPLIED with the printer) these can
be bought from Wapping Electronics.
I bought my 800 last September and
found the User Guide very friendly. I
have been in contact with Tim Parsons
who has 800+ and between us we have
sorted out some of the problems. The
main problem in the past with a
printer guide is using the Control
Codes for getting all those different
effects, which the dealer shows you
but which you can never do. At LAST
EPSON have produced a guide where the
control codes are given in
ASCII,decimal and Hex. So changing the
font, line feed, typestyles etc are
fairly easy.
I wanted to use the Inkjet Printer
with Interword (wordprocessor).Users
of IW will know that in Sub-Menu 6
there are various control codes to
give underlining, bold,italics and
these can be entered into text from
the keyboard using shift/function keys
4/5/6. These all work with the 800.
Also using the function key (f1) you
can enter the embedded command menu
where codes can be enter directly on
the 3rd line (press f1, then cursor
key down once) and then a code to
start any type of type,size etc. Do
the same at the end of the line to
finish the effect. This sub-menu on
the line below has a Star command line
and using a program from Beebug (which
I have adapted) I can now enter the
effect by pressing f1, then arrow key
twice and enter my command as "cond"
for condensed on or "enl" for the
double width type, the same needs to
be done at the end of the text
"condoff" or "enloff" to turn the
effect off. I have a print out in
double height fixed the wall above my
desk to remind me of the words needed
for the effect. Its much easier to
remember the words than the codes.
It is also possible to use Sub-menu 6
and alter the codes in lines
3,4,5,6,7,8 to give different effects
direct from the shift/keys f4/5/6
(these codes can saved to disc from
Sub-menu 6 using the save/load control
codes option at the bottom of the
menu, prefix the name with CC to
remind you that they are control
codes.
The different fonts can be
selected from the control panel on the
printer, as also can a economy (draft
on 800+) and condensed. But the fonts
are easier selected in the middle of
text by using the embedded command
menu f1. The fonts offered are
Courier,Roman T, Sans H. Roman, Sans
Serif, Prestige and Script, just try
and see what you like best!!
Four of these Roman, Sans Serif,
Roman T, Sans Serif H. are scalable,
you can change then in size from 8 to
32 points, a point = 0.5mm. So you can
get text from 4 mm to 16mm in theory.
I have managed to get from 4mm to 8mm
high. 8mm very useful for doing OHP
(for teaching). This caused some
problems to start with as the manual
indicates that to do this you need to
enter the following control codes
27,88,m,n1,n2 - the m,n1,n2 to take
various values from 0 - 64 depending
on the size wanted, I tried all
various combinations but could only
get 8mm text. A letter to Epson gave
me the answer - m = 1 for proportional
text, n1 = 8,16,32,64, and n2 always
equals 00
The help line can also be phoned
(Chris Richardson has used them for
his 400). In the manual there are
character
tables showing all the characters
available. The keyboard will print
out from ! (Decimal 33) to ÷ (decimal
126) including all capitals, lower
case, numbers,signs. Decimal nos 128 -
254 can be printed but how? There is
some way to add 128 to the keyboard
number (a special key on the Compact)
but what do you do on a Master or B+?
I did find a programme in the Micro
User which will allow you to use a
Star command in f1 and then using the
keyboard to print characters from 129
- 255 - well most of them. Are programs
from Micro User public Domain?
Additional characters are available
(below decimal 32) using ESC(^ code
(smiling faces, playing cards, music
notes arrows etc). Once again the
codes are (27,40,94,n1,n2,data) and
the question is what do you put for
n1/n2. So I tried various numbers for
n1/n2 (I don't know much about
printers as you can see!) and data
and I got a couple of smiling faces
and a whole page with a music note
scattered over it. I thought and I
thought and finally the light dawned
- the Music note is printed by decimal
13, the code of the return key. So
having set the printer to print these
characters it just when on doing them
using the code entered.
However I wont tell you how long
before I got it worked out - it is so
simple. n1 is equal to the number of
characters you want to print out
(five notes required n1=5) n2 = 0 and
data = the number of the characters
required. So to print one of each of
the first five characters the code
entered is:- 27,40,94,5,0,1,2,3,4,5,
27,40,94,(The ESC(^ code to call up
the pictures)
5,(n1) 0,(n2) 1,2,3,4,5,(the
numbers of the pictures required
You can also use double height
/double width with these to get larger
pictures.
All is possible if you know how!!
The printer will overscore single or
double and double underline
using 27,40,45,3,0,1,3,1
(change last 1 to 2 for double
overscore) and to turn these off
27,40,45,3,0,1,3,0.
(If you enter all the codes from
Basic remember you need a 1 in front
of them 1,27,1,40,1,45 etc)
There is lots more things to do with
the Epson Stylus some I am still
finding out. I am not a "wizz kid"with
computers, (not even a kid being an
OAP)I don't programme even in basic, I
am still trying to learn. But using
the Stylus manual etc I have been able
to produce good printouts. If I can do
it anyone can. So if you have been
thinking about getting an inkjet I can
recommend the Epson Stylus Range.
One problem still to be overcome
is the printing of graphics,but I will
leave details of my progress until
next time or I will miss the deadline.
Any comments or help please contact
me.
Lorna Jenne
0181 670 6665
53 Uffington Road
West Norwood
SE27 0NE
I said I don't know anything about
basic etc it has taken me two DAYS to
get this article transfered from
Interword to the 8Bit Message System.
I managed it in the end by loading my
Interword text into Wordwise plus and
then using LL38 as suggested in the
notes on the Program in the Catalogue.
I did read it first, but it doen't
mention Interword and I thought that
if I spooled from the menu it should
work. HOW Wrong can you be.
Thanks for all the help 8 Bit gives
to people like me.
Press Break