Printing
Documents
Once you have added a printer using Printer
Setup Utility as explained earlier in this lesson, all Mac OS X
applications can print to that device using a simple process and a
consistent interface.
Printing from Mac OS X
Applications
Almost all Mac OS X applications that create or
edit documents have Page Setup and Print commands in their File
menus. If you've never printed from a particular application, the
first step is to configure Page Setup because each application
maintains its own settings for this dialog.
Configuring the Page Setup Dialog
The Page Setup dialog in Mac OS X applications
allows you to change the appearance of pages to be printed. The
choices for settings depend upon the application you are printing
from and the printer you are using to print.
Because the printable area on a page varies for
each type of printer, it is important to use the Page Setup dialog
to choose the intended printer so that the application does not
attempt to exceed the printable area of the printer. The
configuration in Page Setup is used by the application to determine
the printable area.
The "Format for" pop-up menu is subtle in how it
affects the page. Each printer has different page boundaries. Some
can print closer to the top and bottom edges of the page; others
can print closer to the left and right edges. Choose Any Printer
from this pop-up menu to specify a lowest common denominator for
the printable area, one that just about any printer can handle.
NOTE
If you find that headers or footers are cropped
when printed from your computer, but not from another computer,
check the printer chosen in Page Setup. If Any Printer is already
chosen, try choosing the correct printer manually.
The default items in the Paper Size pop-up menu
in Page Setup are country-specific. For example, if you selected
United States as your country in Setup Assistant when you
configured your computer, the Paper Size menu items will include US
Letter and US Legal.
Configuring the Print Dialog
The Print dialog is the main interface for
printing from any Mac OS X application. Printers that are
configured in Printer Setup Utility can be chosen from the Printer
pop-up menu on the Print dialog. Options such as number of copies
and pages, layout, output, paper feed, and error handling can be
configured and saved as settings. Additional options depend upon
the printer driver being used and might be configurable in the
Printer Setup Utility on the Show Info pane.
New in Mac OS X 10.4, if Mac OS X is able to
detect that a printer is low on supplies, the Supplies button turns
golden and a warning message appears next to the button. Click the
warning message to display the Supplies pane to see what supplies
are low. Click the Supplies button to visit the Apple Store webpage
that contains supplies for your printer.
NOTE
Not all printer drivers report supply levels to
Mac OS X. Also, the information displayed in the Supplies pane will
vary depending upon the printer.
Printing Using Desktop Printers
If you create a desktop icon for a printer, you
can quickly print documents by dragging and dropping document icons
onto the printer icon in the Finder. You can also double-click the
desktop printer icon to open the printer's queue window and monitor
jobs while they print.
To create a desktop printer, either select the
printer in the Printer Setup Utility and choose Printers >
Create Desktop Printer (Command-Shift-D), or drag the printer's
name from the Printer List to the Finder's desktop.
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