C7500 BarTender Driver

Do you know that Seagull Scientific offers a BarTender driver for the C7500 printer? 

You can get the C7500 driver here: http://www.seagullscientific.com/drivers/printer-driver-features/?m=epson+colorworks+c7500

Or the C7500G driver here: http://www.seagullscientific.com/drivers/printer-driver-features/?m=epson+colorworks+c7500g

But nowhere can you get a set of release notes using this alternative driver.  At least I couldn’t find or get one.

Although the BarTender driver has been available, I’ve said that I preferred the Epson over the Seagull C7500 Driver.  I made this recommendation primarily because you can get to the Printer Setting Utility using only the Epson version.  You need the Printer Setting Utility to make adjustments in the printer such as beep volume, gap/blackmark sensor calibration and a host of other capabilities that I felt were mandatory for users.  Therefore, I believe you must load the Epson C7500 driver for every deployment.

But the BarTender driver has a few capabilities that may make it a better option for selected users.  Let me show you two capabilities that you may find of value to install a second driver for your C7500/C7500G printer.

C7500 Available Drivers

First, BarTender users are not required to add the label size to the driver.  Typically, I recommend C7500 users add their various label sizes to the Epson driver first thing:

C7500 Label Size Setting

But BarTender users will set up the page size using either the Label Wizard to Page Setup which shows User Defined Size: 

BarTender Page Size Setting

Therefore, the BarTender driver eliminates one step in the label setup process.  Many BarTender users find this capability of value.  And companies automating label printing find this setup process mandatory.

Second, the BarTender driver makes it easier to adjust the print start/stop position when printing full bleed.  Let me explain what I mean.

When printing full bleed, typically you need to make adjustments in the print start position in order to cover the label 100% edge-to-edge with ink.  For example, when I printed this label as a PDF, you see some white along the edge:

C7500 Label Requiring Print Start Adjustment

To adjust the print start position using the Epson driver, you would need to open the Printer Setting Utility and make the adjustment by selecting either Print Start vertical or horizontal:

C7500 Print Start Adjustment

And then the amount:

C7500 Print Start Adjustment

Frankly, I always find it confusing when to make the adjustment positive or negative.  Further, as the Printer Setting Utility runs as a separate application, some IT department policies prevent this application from running.

When I printed this same label as an embedded image in BarTender, I still had some white showing on the label:

BarTender Printed File

With the BarTender C7500, I can easily make position adjustments without opening up the Printer Setting Utilities.  By opening up the BarTender driver:

Then navigating to the Stock tab:

BarTender C7500 Driver Position Adjustment

I can adjust the top and left position easily and logically: Negative to start earlier and positive to start later to make the full bleed printing perfect with just a small amount of ink on the liner.

Full-Bleed Label Printing

As a reminder, I recommend setting up the page size in the software slightly larger (.03”) than the actual label size when printing full-bleed.  This extra spare makes it easier to print 100% of the label with ink.  You can learn more about full-bleed label printing from this post on the LX2000:  http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2015/06/lx2000-full-bleed-color-label-printer.html 

If you decide to use the BarTender C7500 driver, I recommend making the following 3 configuration settings:

1.  In the page setup, I had to edit the page size to eliminate the liner margin.  First, go to the BarTender driver Page Setup and select “Edit”:

Edit Label Page Setup

And then take out the liner spacing.

C7500 BarTender Driver Liner Setting

I assume this issue is a result that I add the label as the exact size of the actual facestock; and not total construction size.

2.  On the Graphics Tab, I learned not to question the DPI setting.  It seems the BarTender driver says the DPI is 600 x 600; whereas the C7500 runs at 1200 x 600.  I guess the BarTender driver lists the INPUT and not the OUTPUT setting. 

3.  On the Stock tab, you’ll need to configure the advanced settings under the Media Settings to insure you have the correct internal/external and gap/blackmark sensor settings as well as which media selection:

C7500 BarTender Stock Tab

BarTender C7500 Driver Media Setting

If you are a BarTender user, you may find the BarTender C7500 driver easier/better to use.  If you’re not a BarTender user, you may find the driver easier to use to print full-bleed labels. If you do decide to run with the BarTender driver, be sure to load the Epson C7500 driver as well; and contact us if you have any questions on the C7500/C7500G and the available drivers.

Guy Mikel

855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com