Using Various Print Functions
This section briefly describes various print functions that you can configure with the printer driver to make printouts appropriate for your purposes.
Print quality and color tone can be adjusted to suit the print data. Some of the print quality settings you can configure are described below.
Printing color documents in black and white
The black produced in black and white printing is a more distinct black than that produced in color printing.
Separating the print data into CMYK and printing in designated color only
Normally, all four colors (CMYK) are used for color printing. If you do not want to use certain colors, you can disable the use of those colors and print using other colors only.
Saving toner when printing (Economy Color printing)
You can save toner by printing with lower toner consumption.
Changing the image printing method
You can select to print with priority on print quality or print speed. When printing images, the higher the resolution of images is, the longer the time is required for printing.
Changing the dither pattern
A dither pattern is a pattern of dots used to simulate a color or shade of an image. If the pattern is changed, the characteristics of the image will also change. You can select a pattern suitable for the image to be printed.
Changing the color profiling pattern
You can select a color profiling pattern to adjust the tone of colors according to the colors displayed on the computer screen.
Because colors on the computer screen are created using the three RGB colors while colors for printing are composed of the four CMYK colors, colors need to be converted during the printing process. Therefore, images on the printed paper may look different from those on the computer screen if adjustment is not performed.
Printing grayscale images using black or CMYK
You can print black or gray sections of an image using black toner only, instead of using all CMYK toners. Compared to the black printed with CMYK toner, this results in a black that is flatter and purer.
Using ICM (Image Color Matching)
You can use Windows ICM function to reproduce colors that appear on the computer screen as close as they are on printed paper.
To use this function, the color profile must be added to the computer. For information about adding a color profile, search Windows Help for "color profile", and then see the appropriate topic.
Some of the functions described above might not be available depending on the printer driver or operating system. For details, see the printer driver Help.
You can specify the form of print outputs according to your purposes. This section briefly describes some of the settings that you can specify.
Printing multiple sets of a document
You can print multiple sets of the same document.
Collating the output in document batches
You can print complete sets of a multiple-page document one set at a time (P1, P2, P1, P2 ...). If this function is not used when printing multiple sets, prints will be output in page batches (P1, P1, P2, P2 ...). This function is useful when, for example, making presentation materials.
Changing orientation or rotating the image
You can change the orientation of an image to portrait or landscape. You can also rotate the image by 180 degrees. Use rotation to prevent an image from being printed upside down when using paper with a predefined top and bottom (such as letterhead paper).
Printing multiple pages per sheet
You can print multiple pages onto one sheet of paper.
When using this function, a suitable reduction ratio is selected automatically based on the paper size and the number of pages you want to fit on each sheet.
Printing on both sides of paper (duplex printing)
You can print on both sides of paper.
Reducing or enlarging the document
You can reduce or enlarge documents by a specific ratio, from 25% to 400% in 1% increments.
You can also reduce or enlarge documents automatically to fit a specific paper size. This function is useful, for example, when printing Web pages.
If the [Enable Large Papers] option is selected, A3/11 × 17/B4/8K documents can be scaled to a size that the machine supports, so that it can then be printed out.
Not printing of blank pages (only PostScript 3 printer driver)
If a print job contains blank pages, they can be prevented from being printed.
Note that this setting has higher priority than [Blank Page Print] under [Printer Settings] of the control panel.
Printing with a cover page
You can add a cover page to the print job.
You can select to leave the cover page blank, or print the first page of the document on the cover page. If a cover page is inserted into a duplex job, you can print on its back side also.
Paper for the cover page can either be the same as or different from the remaining pages.
Printing on custom size paper
You can print using non-standard size paper by specifying the size of the paper as custom size.
To specify the custom paper size, select [Custom Paper Size] from the [Document Size:] list, and then click the [Custom Paper Size...] button in the lower part of the dialog box to configure the paper size.
Superimposing text on prints (watermark)
You can superimpose watermark text on prints. Various predefined watermarks are provided. You can also create your own watermarks.
Some of the functions described above might not be available depending on the printer driver or operating system. For details, see the printer driver Help.