Digital Series 500 Printers DECcolor Works Printer Driver

This user guide provides comprehensive instructions for installing, configuring, and troubleshooting the DECcolor Works printer driver, designed for Digital Series 500 color inkjet printers operating in Windows 3.1/3.11 environments.

The document introduces DECcolor Works as an advanced printing system offering fast and customizable output. Key advantages include intuitive graphical dialog boxes, a tabbed user interface, richer color reproduction through color correction, enhanced photo and graphic quality via advanced Diffusion dithering, and faster printing due to efficient resource management and the use of compact "journal files."

The guide details the installation process from a supplied diskette, including how to run a color Windows print test. It then delves into configuring the printer driver through six main dialog boxes: Paper Size/Source, Paper Types/Print Quality, Printhead/Resolution, Document Type, Image Settings, and Dithering. These sections explain how to select paper dimensions and trays, define print quality settings (speed, ink use, inking speed), choose between monochrome and color printing, set resolution, apply predefined document types, adjust image attributes like brightness and color saturation, and select appropriate dithering patterns for various content.

Further sections describe the DECcolor Works Spool Manager and Despooler. The Spool Manager oversees communication between the computer and printer, managing print queues and journal files, with options for holding, releasing, reprinting, or deleting jobs, and configuring network printing. The Despooler operates in the background, showing print progress and status messages, and allows users to stop, pause, or rewind print jobs.

Finally, the guide includes a troubleshooting section that provides solutions for common printer setup, print head, and paper-related issues, along with a series of questions and answers addressing frequent user concerns about dithering, print speed, and printing to remote devices.