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 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