T480 Unicode and Fonts
T480
Programmer’s Guide
Page
190
Rev A
100-14362
The EPIC 3000 is a two-color printer. It has white (the paper), and two predefined
colors. Typically one of the colors is black, and the other is a highlight color. The high
light color is primarily used in text printing to highlight a line, and typically is red.
When the EPIC 3000 generates graphics, both colors are used to generate the image.
Because the program that generates the graphic image data should not need to be
aware of the colors available in the printer, three color planes are sent to the printer.
The printer is aware of what colors the cartridges are that will generate the image. The
printer will converts the full color image information into a two color image.
If the EPIC 3000 printer is configured with a black color and a highlight color, there is no
point in the printers mixing the highlight color with black. If however, the EPIC 3000
printer is configured with two colors other than black, the printer attempts to mix the
colors to generate black. (Note that in text mode the colors are not mixed.) This
requires that there be two basic modes of color graphic generation.
If the EPIC 3000 printer is configured with two colors, the printer will mix the two colors
on the thermal paper, using the primary and the secondary color. Because there are
three primary colors, the printer is unable to print full color. The printer follows the rules
for mixing colors and it if the result is ambiguous (because of the missing color), the
printer will print with the primary color. This results in a image made up of primary color
dots, secondary color dots and mixed dots. The mixed dots color may not be black but a
mixture of whatever colors are installed.
In text mode, the primary color is assigned as the default color and the secondary color
is assigned as the alternate highlight color. In most cases the darkest color should be
initialized as the primary color.
The Ithaca
®
Windows print driver provides the translation from Windows color to the
three color planes. When a graphic is created for the EPIC 3000 Printer, the colors used
must take into account that colors other than the highlight color will print black. The
Ithaca
®
Windows driver helps adjust the color content and generates the desired print
from a full color image
Procedure for color horizontal graphics:
There are many ways to generate graphics for the EPIC 3000 printer. The easiest is to
use the PJColor program. (See the next section.) The other way is to use the Ithaca
windows driver and capture the output to a file.
To generate an image using the windows print driver:
1. Generate the graphic image in the program of your choice. Use colors consistent
with the two colors installed in the printer.
2. Make sure the paper size you pick fits the printer (3 inches wide with 0.25-inch
margins).
3. The EPIC 3000 print driver should be installed (even if the printer is not connected).
4. Set up the print driver to print the graphic to a file using whatever resolution is
required.
5. Print the graphic image to a file.
6. Later, when you want to print the graphic, simply copy the file to the printer with your
application.
7. You may also copy the graphic to the graphic save buffer and then request the
printer to retrieve and print it without re-sending the graphic data.
