Printer Test [PRINTER]

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ex_print

This test verifies the correct operation of the printer by either sending a standard page of text, or a sending a command file, to the printer.

Standard test

This test verifies the correct operation of the printer. The test sends pages of text to the default Windows printer. (See Start, Settings Printers in Windows to define a default printer). The pages printed by the printer should be a page of solid text in a fixed point font filling the printable area of the page. There should be a small margin (usually under 1cm) around the block of text.

The number of pages printed during a period of time depends on the print duty cycle. For each duty cycle increment there will be an additional 20second delay between each page. This means that a Duty Cycle of 1 corresponds to a delay of 33minutes between pages. A duty cycle of 50 corresponds to a delay of about 16minutes between pages

The pages printed should be visually inspected to check if they are complete.

The cycle count for the printer test corresponds to the number of pages printed. The ‘ops’ count corresponds to the number of characters printed.

Standard color printer test

The standard color test sends pages of color text to the default Windows printer. The pages printed by the printer should be a page of solid color text in a fixed-point font filling the printable area of the page. There should be a small margin (usually under 1cm) around the block of text. The colors are as follows:

Title: Black

Repeated blocks of:

Red        (RGB: 0xFF0000)

Red        (RGB: 0x7F0000)

Green        (RGB: 0x00FF00)

Green        (RGB: 0x007F00)

Blue        (RGB: 0x0000FF)

Blue        (RGB: 0x00007F)

 

Printer command file

The user can define a printer command file to be used in place of the standard test. A printer command file is a file containing a series of printer commands which is used by the printer to carry out certain actions. For example a printer command file could contain instructions on how to print an image or page of text. Specialized printer command files can also be created by printer manufacturers in order to run their printers through a particular test routine.

See the Print Preferences section for more details about how to create and select printer command files.