InformIT: Mac OS X Unleashed

Table of Contents

Printing

Sending a job to the printer from an application in OS X works as it did in previous versions of the operating system. Page Setup under the File menu is where you set basic page settings. Print under the File menu is still used to send your job to the printer and specify additional characteristics for the print job.

If you installed separate printer drivers from your manufacturer, we would expect that you have some additional available options not covered here.

Page Setup

Under the File menu of an application, choose Page Setup to set the basic settings that you are used to setting up in Page Setup. Figure 10.5 shows what Page Setup looks like in OS X. Page Setup appears as either a sheet or a window, depending on the application. Sometimes it can be accessed only from the File menu, or with Shift+Command+P.The Settings option has the major choices of Page Attributes and Summary. At the bottom of Page Setup, there is a button for direct access to the Help Center, as well as buttons for Cancel and OK. We will break our examination of Page Setup according to the Settings choices.

Figure 10.5 Page Setup can still be found under the File menu in OS X. The page settings are almost identical to previous versions of the operating system.

Page Attributes

The Settings option is set to Page Attributes by default. The Page Attributes that can be specified are the printer, the page size, orientation, and scale.

Format For

Under the Page Attributes section of Page Setup, you can select which printer to format for. The available printer choices are Any Printer and whatever printers are included as part of your Printer List. Page Setup formats for Any Printer by default, and Any Printer has an additional description of Generic Printer. When you select a printer that is in your Printer List, a more specific description appears. Note that in our example, the Page Setup describes printer jiji as an Apple Personal LaserWriter.

Paper Size

Page size is also specified in Page Setup. The available paper sizes vary with the selected printer. The default page sizes available for Any Printer are US Letter, US Legal, A4, B5, JB5 and #10 envelope. Whenever you select a paper size, its dimensions appear as an additional description. For Any Printer, US Letter, 8.5"x11", is the default paper size.

Orientation

There is a slight change in what is available for orientation. Portrait is available as well as two forms of landscape. For landscape, you can specify whether the top of the printout should be at the right or left side of the paper. Simply select the appropriate icon to suit your needs. Portrait is the default orientation.

Scale

Scale is a box where you can input the desired scaling. The default is 100%.

Summary

The Summary option of Page Setup displays a summary of the settings you have selected for all the Page Attributes categories. Figure 10.6 shows a sample summary.

Figure 10.6 The Summary section of Page Setup summarizes the Page Attributes you have selected.

Print

You can still choose Print under the File menu (Command+P) to print a file, as in earlier versions of the operating system. Choosing Print opens the Print dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.7. Depending on the application, the Print dialog box appears either as a sheet or as a separate, movable window. In this section, you can choose the default printer, select another one, or even edit the Printer List to add another printer. The following can also be set or done in the Print dialog box: Copies & Pages, Layout, Output Options, Paper Feed, Error Handling, Summary, and Save Custom Setting. The bottom of the Print dialog box has a button for direct access to the Help Center as well as buttons for Preview, Cancel, and Print. Preview is sometimes available under the File menu of an application, but it always appears as a button in the Print dialog box.

Figure 10.7 Choosing Print under the File menu opens the Print dialog box, where you can select a printer and various options for your print job.

Please note that the Print dialog box that is used by the Terminal application varies from the more traditional Print dialog box described in this section.

Printer

By default, whichever printer is listed in your Printer List as your default printer is listed here as the default printer. You can also select from any of the other printers available in your Printer List, or you can choose Edit Printer List to edit your Printer List. This option immediately takes you to the Print Center, where you can add or delete printers.

Saved Settings

Saved Settings appears as Standard by default. After you have saved a customized setting, you will be able to select Standard or Custom.

Copies & Pages

Copies & Pages is the default item that appears providing additional specifications to your print job. It is simply the first item in a drop-down menu of many items. Here you specify the number of copies you want to print, whether the pages should be collated, and a page range. For the page range, you can select either All or specify an actual range of page numbers.

Layout

Layout, shown in Figure 10.8, is where you select layout settings. The first available option is Pages Per Sheet, where you can select 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, or 16 pages per sheet. The next option is Layout direction. There are four layout direction options: horizontally from left to right, horizontally from right to left, vertically from left to right, and vertically from right to left. The available layout directions are indicated with helpful icons. The final layout option is Border. Available options for Border are None, Single hairline, Single thin line, Double hairline, and Double thin line.

Figure 10.8 The Layout section of Print is where you specify the number of pages per sheet, layout direction, and border.

Output Options

Output Options allows you to save your print job to a file instead. Currently the available output options are PDF and PostScript. The Print button becomes a Save button, allowing you to select a location where your file should be saved.

Figure 10.9 In the Output Options section of the Print dialog box, you can save your Print job as a PDF file or PostScript file.

Paper Feed

The Paper Feed section, shown in Figure 10.10, is where you set any special paper feed options. You can either choose to specify that all your pages come from a particular paper feed option, or that the first one come from one location and the remaining pages from a different location. This could be useful, for example, if you have a tray dedicated to letterhead. The actual paper feed choices for the different categories vary with the printer.

Figure 10.10 Special paper feed options can be set in the Paper Feed section of the Print dialog box.

Error Handling

Figure 10.11 shows the default Error Handling options for a PostScript printer that can have multiple trays. The Error Handling options that appear for this printer are for PostScript Errors and Tray Switching. The PostScript error choices are to either have No Special Reporting, which is the default, or to Print Detailed Report. The Tray Switching error options are Use Printers default, which is the default, Switch to another cassette with same paper size, or Display Alert. The Tray Switching error options are Use printers default, which is the default; switch to another cassette with same paper size; or Display alert. Unfortunately, because we have only PostScript printers readily available, we do not know if another error handling option might appear in place of the PostScript Errors option, or if that option is simply grayed out for non-PostScript printers.

Figure 10.11 Error handling options can be set in the Error Handling section of the Print dialog box.

Application

Sometimes an application will have a category for additional special options unique to it. This is always a good place to check if you find that your print results are a bit unexpected. For example, if you are printing something created in color to a color printer, but it prints in grayscale, you would check here for additional options for your particular application.

Summary

The Summary option displays a summary of all the settings that you specified with Print. A sample Summary is shown in Figure 10.12.

Figure 10.12 The Summary section of the Print dialog box displays a summary of the settings for the current print job.

Save Custom Setting

Save Custom Setting enables you to save custom print settings. When you have done this, your available choices in Saved Settings become Standard or Custom. So far, we have not observed a way to remove a custom setting if you accidentally saved one. Also, it does not appear that you can customize the name of your custom setting. After you have made a custom setting in an application, this same custom setting becomes available in your other applications. In a different application, you can change that custom setting by selecting Save Custom Setting. Although the name appears as Custom, the settings associated with it will be different for the two applications. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be possible to have more than one custom setting per application. Figure 10.13 shows a sample custom setting. In the sample, only the Layout has been customized.

Figure 10.13 This is a sample custom setting.

Preview

The behavior of the Preview button of the Print dialog box varies with the application. In some applications, the Preview button calls the Preview application. From the Preview application itself, you can then choose such options as Save as PDF, Page Setup, or Print. In other applications, the Preview button launches a customized Preview option, where you can also choose Page Setup or Print. In either case, it is expected that you should be able to print directly from the Preview option, no matter how Preview is handled.

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