Introduction It is often desirable and sometimes necessary to be able to put the information available on the computer on hard copy. The printer allows you to do that. The printer is essentially an output device with which you are able to output text and graphics onto paper from digital data stored on the computer. To complement this, the scanner is an input device with which you can transfer text and graphics from paper to the computer and stored in the form of digital data which can then be further manipulated by other software applications. The Printer Printer Setup Before you can use your printer, you must attach it to your computer and install it on your system. To Attach the Printer to your Computer : Insert the printer plug into the matching socket on the back of the computer. Gently push in all the way, then tighten both handscrew until the monitor plug is firmly attached. (Figure 1) Handscrew Figure 1 1
Plug the printer into a surge protector and switch it on. Your computer may now automatically detect your printer. If not, you will need to install it manually. NOTE: It is important to switch your printer on after connecting it to ensure your computer will detect it properly. To manually install the Printer : Select Administration and then Printing from the System menu. (Figure 2) Figure 2 The Printers window will appear on screen. (Figure 3) Figure 3 2
Click on the New Printer icon to add a new Printer (Figure 4) or select Printer and then Add Printer from the top menu bar. (Figure 5) Figure 4 Figure 5 The following window will appear (Figure 6) asking you to choose a printer to install. Figure 6 Select the required settings for your printer and then click the Forward button. (Figure 7) Figure 7 3
The next window will ask you to select the make and model of the printer in order to install the appropriate driver. (Figure 8) Figure 8 Select the manufacturer, model and driver of your printer from the drop down menus. If the required driver is not already available, you can install one by clicking on the Install Driver button. (Figure 9) If the driver is already available, click the Apply button. (Figure 10) Figure 9 Figure 10 An icon of the newly installed printer will appear in the Printers window. (Figure 11) Figure 11 4
Printing a Test Page To ensure your printer is working properly, you may like to print a test page. To Print a Test Page : Right click on the printer icon and select Properties from the menu. (Figure 12) Figure 12 The following window will appear. (Figure 13) Here you can change any of the settings associated with your printer. Figure 13 Click on the Print a Test Page button. (Figure 14) Figure 14 5
Managing Print Jobs When you send something for printing it is sent to the Print Manager which is used for managing the print jobs associated with a given printer. The Print Manager can be utilised to check on the status of the printing jobs that you have submitted to the printer and to pause or cancel jobs still in the queue if you need to. To use the Print Manager : Double left click on the printer icon in the Printers window. This will open up the Print Manager window. The list of jobs in the queue for the printer are listed here. (Figure 15) Figure 15 To pause or cancel a printing job, just right click on it and select either command from the menu. (Figure 16) To restart a paused printing job, you can right click on it and choose Resume. Figure 16 6
The Scanner The scanner is a device which allows you to convert analog graphics e.g. a photograph or a printed page into digital format where it can be stored on the computer and further manipulated by appropriate software. Most scanners connect to the computer using the USB, SCSI or parallel ports. To use the scanner, suitable software to control and drive it is required. The SANE backend drivers may be used to drive the scanner hardware while the XSane GUI front-end acts as the end-user interface. To check whether the scanner you have can be used, the SANE website at http://www.sane-project.org should be consulted. Using The Scanner You can start using the scanner by opening the Xsane scanning software on the Desktop. To Start Xsane : From the Applications menu, select Graphics and then Xsane Image Scanning Program. (Figure 17) Figure 17 7
Printers and Scanners The Xsane options window, the standard options window and the Preview window will appear on the desktop. (Figure 18) Figure 18 XSane Options Window The XSane options window (Figure 19) is the main window of the XSane scanning program. From here you can adjust the options and settings for your scan. Figure 19 8
This window gives you five different viewing modes to choose from: Viewer mode - an image is scanned and displayed in Save mode - the preview window an image is scanned and saved to a file Copy mode - an image is scanned and sent directly Fax mode - to a printer the scanned image can be sent to a back-end Mail mode - fax software an image is scanned and sent via email to intended recipients. To change modes, click on the black arrow to the right of the mode box and choose an option from the drop down menu. (Figure 20) Figure 20 You can also choose the different colour modes (Color, Gray or Binary) by clicking on the black arrow to the right of the next box down. (Figure 21) Figure 21 The next two boxes allow you to select a scan medium (e.g. full colour, slide or negative) and the resolution of your scan. (Figure 22) (Figure 22) Settings such as brightness and contrast can be altered using the sliders near the bottom of the window. (Figure 23) (Figure 23) 9
Standard Options Window This window also allows you to adjust the brightness and sharpness of your image aswell as the Gamma correction value. (Figure 24) Figure 24 Preview Window This window (Figure 25) displays a preview of the image. This allows you to select a certain area to scan if you don t want to scan the entire image and also allows you to adjust the brightness, contrast etc. before the actual scanning of the image takes place. Figure 25 10
To Preview: Ensure your scanner is switch on and the item you are scanning is position correctly on the scanner bed. Click on the Acquire Preview button in the bottom left hand corner of the Preview window. (Figure 26) Figure 26 Scan After the appropriate scan area has been chosen in the Preview window, the image can be adjusted and/or enhanced for colour correction, contrast, and brightness. After a satisfactory image is seen in the preview window, perform the actual scan by clicking on the scan button in the main window. (Figure 27) Figure 27 The scan will be performed and the scanned image displayed in the Viewer window. (Figure 28) Figure 28 11
Save The scanned image that is displayed in the Viewer window can be saved to a file by selecting File and then Save Image (Figure 29) Figure 29 Alternatively click on the Save Image icon on the toolbar. (Figure 30) Figure 30 12