EPSON STYLUS PHOTO 780 with Mac Pro

Perhaps I have not been very clear. Before I escaped the "Darkside" and returned to Apple with my new Mac Pro I used Xrite's Monaco EZcolor to generate a custom printer profile for my Epson 780. To do that one must disable color management in the printer driver. I cannot get the latest Epson driver to install on the Mac Pro so I'm using the Gimp driver which comes with OSX. But each driver talks to the printer differently and I need to make a new profile for my combination of peripherals and drivers, again with Monaco EZColor.

Also, to the best of my knowledge one cannot view the ink levels OR do a nozzle cleaning or print head alignment with the Gimp Driver which you can with the Epson driver.

Perhaps the latest Epson driver would work if I could get the installer to work but I can't.

Thank you for your response. Please continue. I'm learning some new information.

I'm using Gimp Print v5.0.0-beta 2. Is Gutenprint the same thing? If not, where do I get it?

Can you tell me where to find the button to which you refer?

The driver downloads in .sea.hqx format

Printer Driver v1.1aS
Macintosh OS X (v10.0 - 10.1)
epson10094.sea.hqx - 5.2MB - posted on 10/26/01

We are actually talking about the same thing: free
open source printer drivers from Sourceforge.

OK. That clears things up a bit. The version that came with the
Mac PRo is still called Gimp-Print but has a version of 5.0 something beta 2
so it's a bit confusing.

Gutenprint 5.0.0 is the first stable release of 5.0.
Gutenprint is the new name for Gimp-Print as of the
5.0 release.

OK. It looks like perhaps the Mac Pro shipped with a beta version, 5.0 beta 2,
so I'll try installing the 5.0.0 version.

This release represents the

state-of-the-art in current Gimp-Print development.

...snip>

(No, I didn't write that! You can read all about it,
and download, from here):

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3

I recognize it. I've been reading the documentation. It looks like it might even do a better job than the Epson driver but I still have to figure out how to go about using a custom printer profile with it. My Mac Pro is at home so I'll have to wait to install and try it. I also have to try and fix my wife's broken PC first- she just won't learn. 🙂

When you say 'the driver' did you mean Epson's driver

The Epson driver doesn't seem to want to decompress properly with S. Expander on the Mac PRo. I tried downloading it several times.

or the Gutenprint that you have? Not that it really
matters - the Gutenprint downloads as a disk image
which contains the installer.

The one you downloaded (whichever it was) was in .sea
(self-expanding archive) .hqx (hexadecimal), which
your Mac should be able to open using Stuffit
Expander. If you don't have that it's a free
download. That download format is a bit old hat and
IMO reveals the age of the driver.

Yes. But it's an old printer too and Epson has moved on.
I like the printer though(well, more or less if I can keep
the nozzles unclogged) and it still does a good job.
And the price is right.

The 'Ink/print head' button I mentioned is part of
the printer window you get with the Gutenprint
printer.

Try it and see what you think!

I will, just as soon as I deal with that stupid Win box.

thanks for your help.

I installed the Gutenprint update to bring the driver up to 5.0.0 from the beta version. There seem to be some changes but nothing dramatic for the Epson 780.

I did see in the documentation the following:

"4.3) Using escputil
escputil is a command line utility which allows the user to perform a variety of maintenance tasks
on EPSON Stylus inkjet printers. These tasks include head alignment, head cleaning, nozzle check,
printer identification, and retrieval of the ink level from the printer. In order for many of the
escputil functions to work, the user must have read/write access to the raw printer device (typically
/dev/lp0, /dev/usb/lp0, and the like). On many systems, this requires superuser privileges. If
you are using packages provided by your system vendor, you may have received special instructions
about using escputil."

escputil does not seem to be mentioned anywhere on the Mac Pro.

Does anyone know how to implement this utility in Gutenprint and if it will
return the above information for an Epson Stylus Photo 780?

I tried running "escputil" in terminal mode but it didn't work.
Do I have to log in as ROOT to do this? I don't understand how to get to the printer maintenance routines in Gutenprint.

I will try the Archive Assistant suggestion for the Epson driver installer tonight. Thanks.

Thank you.

It seems access to Epson maintenance functions is a very hot topic and I find the documentation in Gutenprint a little sparse. I also found the following info on the sourceforge.net forum site:

RE: Accessing Ultilities with Stylus Photo EX
By: bexs (abekkmedia) - 2005-06-02 06:52
Hi,

Been having the same problems but just sorted it. Mac OS X has an application in Utilities called X11, it lets you run applications that are based on X windows system.

Open it and type in escputil -1. Lots of commands will come up for you to check your ink status, clean heads etc. It had problems at first finding my printer but I had three going through it so just made sure Photo EX was the only one on and bobs your uncle it works!!

I can't at present check my ink status but just being able to clean the heads has massively helped me!

Discussion Forums: Help

RE: Accessing Ultilities / escputil
By: neil (neilmcg) - 2006-02-05 03:38
After hunting around, I used pacifist to look into the Tiger installer DVD and under optional installations - there is the Gimp Print package, inside is escputil. I found I can either run the package installer from inside pacifist or the installer DVD - both reinstall escputil in a working state.
The installer does not seem to adversely affect the 5RC2 install already on the machine and now escputil works. Hope this helps others.

So, I'll try finding the package on the installer DVD tonight.

Ok. That clears things up. I saw the info about being able to access a raw printer device as well as those posts that mentioned not having that capability but then there were posts that said that they installed the utility and got it to at least partially work which would make sense in view of your statement that some tasks are possible (those that don't require raw print device access?)

I saw your sourceforge post. Thanks

So I guess the only answer is to install Parallels and run XP to do maintenance tasks(please no, not a return to the Darkside) or hook the printer to my wife's old iBook for maintenance or buy a newer printer with OSX/intell driver compatibility (HP B9180-drool).

Thank you again for clearing things up.

Thank you to all who have provided such timely answers to my questions.
I think that I have a plan now.

One more question- I want to turn off color correction when I build my custom printer profile. I found the thread below on the sourceforge site for the Photo EX. I don't have the driver installed here at work and don't think that I found a specific place to turn off color management except to set all the settings to none and/or 1.0.

Is the the"no color management setting" in the same place in Gutenprint for all Epson's? If not, where would it be for a Stylus Photo 780?

<If Color Correction>uncorrected is a menu choice in Gutenprint 5.0.0 I'd appreciate knowing that before I install it; ... please tell me where to look!
...

RE:RE: basically ditto: Gutenprint&epson 2200
By: Robert M. Albrecht (rmalbrecht) - 2006-12-28 13:51
Hi,
it burried deeply in Printer Features: Output Control Extra 1 2, the third option. >