Stylus Photo 2200

Driver Software (cont.)

The last section of the driver has all of the Maintenance functions such as Nozzle Check, Head Cleaning and Print Head Alignment. You can manually start the Status Monitor. Speed & Progress leads to options for high speed copies, display the progress meter, spooling options for RAW datatype, monitoring preferences (error, communication, ink low, maintenance call and select the shortcut icon for task bar.)

Clicking on the Printer and Option Information button from the Maintenance screen will bring up this info page. At the top it shows you which of the black ink cartridges is currently installed. This is also where you go to setup the automatic paper cutter and clean it when necessary.

Whenever you have an active print job the Epson Status Monitor pops up and shows you the current ink levels and the progress of the printing. You can also get all sorts of printing "tips and tricks" if desired.

If you have enabled the "ink low" warning then this screen will popup whenever one of your ink cartridges is getting low.

Checking the "Print Preview" option on the first driver page is always a good idea. I use the print preview function as my last visual confirmation that I have selected the proper orientation and printing format. Unfortunately the Epson print preview does not have a ruler scale or indicate the chosen paper size which would really help you make sure that you also selected the right media type and size.

Application Software

This is the Photoshop PRINT Image Matching file import filter. You enable it from Photoshop's FILE menu:   FILE - IMPORT - Print Image Matching

This import filter will only display JPEG files that have valid PIM info embedded in the Exif header. You can select one file for import or check the "Import consecutively" option to select more than one image file.

Photoshop does not retain the PIM information separately in the JPEG's header file when you import your PIM image. Instead it converts that information in the file and embeds a color space called EPSON RGB 2001. This profile supports all the PIM color advantages and enhancements.

The PIM plug-in works with Photoshop 7.0, 6.0 and Photoshop Elements 2.0, 1.0. It requires the ICC profiles for the Stylus 2200 that are installed with the plug-in (Windows) or the printer driver (Macintosh)(not available for Mac OS X)

Epson also includes their Film Factory program on the CD. This is an easy to use viewing and printing utility that lets you organize your images the same as if they were rolls of film. It has printing options to easily make standard prints, index prints, duplicates, album pages, sticker prints and combo prints. The preview window shows you thumbnails of all of your images and if they are PIM-compliant there is a little PIM icon in the upper right corner across from the file number.