Most people have problems with printing — especially when they’re in a hurry.
Computers and mechanical devices don’t always go together!
The Chooser
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When you use a Mac for the very first time you must select a model of printer (or particular printer on an AppleTalk network) in a special desk accessory (DA) called the Chooser. If desktop printing is enabled a new printer icon will appear on your Desktop each time you pick a new printer in the Chooser.
The Mac remembers your chosen printer, even after a restart or shut down. So, having made your selection, you’ll rarely need to visit the dreaded Chooser again!
The Chooser can also be used to enable or disable AppleTalk — with the Open Transport version of AppleTalk you’ll also need to enable it in the AppleTalk control panel.
Choosing a Printer
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  The printers that appear in the left-hand box in the Chooser window match the
Chooser extensions or printer driver files in your Extensions folder.
In the example below there are four extensions, two of which are special drivers for creating electronic documents. In this case the StyleWriter 1200 driver is highlighted and is shown connected to the modem port:-
 
In this example AppleTalk is active and is using the printer port — if you decided to use the printer port for the StyleWriter you’ll see a dialog that asks you if you want to make AppleTalk inactive. Once it’s is disabled the port becomes available to the printer.
If you’re fed up seeing printers in the Chooser that you never use just drag the unwanted Chooser extension files out of the Extensions folder and into the Extensions (Disabled) folder, also in the System Folder. If you can’t find the latter you can a folder yourself!
› The Chooser doesn’t show your selected printer when you next open it, even though
it remains selected!
Printer Driver Files
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Each printer driver file (Chooser extension) contains software that converts the data generated by an application into a form understood by the particular printer. Most driver files are named after the printer or a related model. To use a driver file it must be in the Extensions folder in the System Folder.
› If you can’t find a suitable driver file or PPD file (see below) you can’t use the printer!
› Printer drivers don’t use any memory until selected in the Chooser — so don’t trash any
files unless you’re desperate for disk space.
› If a particular printer gives problems with a specific application you may need to get
an updated version of the printer driver.
Special Drivers
  Some drivers give you extra features. Print2Pict can print to a PICT file whilst
Chuck’s Printer Driver lets you use almost any printer, including dot-matrix devices
with a Centronics interface and a parallel/serial converter.
› Non-Mac printers can often be persuaded to print text — but not graphics!
The LaserWriter 8 Driver
  The LaserWriter 8 and LaserWriter 8f drivers work with any laser printer — try
using one of them instead of the driver file supplied with your printer.
To use LaserWriter 8 or 8f there must be a PostScript printer definition (PPD) file for your printer in the Printer Descriptions folder within the Extensions folder. The System Installer provides PPDs for many Apple printers and you can add others as necessary.
Other Chooser Settings
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  With some printers a menu at the top right lets you to select how the printer is
driven, such as AppleTalk or Serial. Depending on the type of printer the
Chooser may also include a Setup button.
› The Setup window for a StyleWriter lets you Log Printer Usage without sharing the
printer. This creates a SimpleText file in the Printing Prefs folder within the
Preferences folder in the System Folder. It’s useful logging paper and printer usage.
› If the Chooser keeps forgetting its settings try zapping the PRAM.
Extra Printing Software
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  There are several software elements that can improve the quality and
convenience of printing. They include:-
Desktop Printers
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  With the Desktop Printer Extension enabled you can print documents by
dropping them onto a desktop printer icon on your Desktop. A new desktop
printer appears each time you pick a different type of printer in the Chooser.
You can have any number of these desktop printers on your Desktop — the one with a bold outline is the default printer. Desktop printers can also be kept inside other folders for your convenience or you can use aliases of them. They can be renamed to help you remember the location of a printer rather than its model name.
The desktop printer icon varies to indicate the printer’s status:-
Icon Meaning
Paper square on icon Printing
Hazard sign (exclamation) Warning
Hand Printer has stopped — is it turned off?
Crossed out Printer unavailable — is it unplugged?
When you open a Desktop Printer a Printing menu appears in the menubar. This provides a list of the documents awaiting printing — you must highlight an item in the list before selecting certain actions.
PrintMonitor & Desktop PrintMonitor
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  PrintMonitor or Desktop PrintMonitor allow background printing so that you can
do other things whilst printing progresses! Both are actually applications without
a Quit command — they quit automatically when printing is completed.
For background printing without any desktop printers place the PrintMonitor file in the Extensions folder. For background printing with desktop printers put Desktop PrintMonitor, the Desktop Printer Extension file and the Desktop Printer Spooler in the Extensions folder.
If you don’t need background printing drag all of the above out of Extensions and into the Extensions (Disabled) folder. If you can’t find the latter you should create it!
When non-desktop printing is in progress the PrintMonitor window can appear and show the progress of printing. You can do other things in the meantime, although older Macs are often slow-running in this situation!
When desktop printing is in the Desktop PrintMonitor window can appear. Documents dropped onto it are printed, even if its window is collapsed with WindowShade! By dragging a document between its two panes you can put printing on hold or make the item the first to be printed. If you press Shift-Option the Hold and Resume buttons change into Stop and Start Queue buttons.
The following also apply to Desktop PrintMonitor:-
› To set Preferences in PrintMonitor just open the application by hand.
› PrintMonitor can get corrupted — if you have problems, try replacing it.
› An alias of PrintMonitor in the Apple Menu Items folder is useful!
› The word spooler (as in Desktop Printer Spooler) comes from Simultaneous Peripheral
Operations Off-Line (SPOOL)
ColorSync
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  ColorSync is a system extension that makes on-screen and printed colours
consistent and is particularly useful for desktop publishing (DTP). It’s used in the
latest models of StyleWriter printers.
To use it you must put the ColorSync extension in the Extensions folder, the ColorSync‚Ñ¢ Profiles folder in your Preferences folder and ColorSync System Profile in the Control Panels folder. The profiles folder must contain data relevant to your monitor screen.
Other Software
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PostScript is necessary for handling PostScript fonts or files in conjunction with a PostScript printer. Some PostScript-based applications may not give very good results when printed on a non-PostScript printer.
√π See the PostScript chapter for more details
QuickDraw GX (see below) can be used for advanced GX fonts or with GX-compatible applications.
ColorShare is a software enhancement that gives photo-realistic results on any stand-alone printer connected via a network using LocalTalk, EtherTalk or TokenTalk. Monochrome printers such as LaserWriters often use the corresponding GreyShare.
Printing Options
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  The appearance of the Page Setup window depends on the printer and whether
you’re using QuickDraw GX (see below). Try Balloon Help if you’re uncertain
about any function.
The following printing options often appear in Page Setup or Print dialogs:-
Black & White
For printing text only without any half-tone details.
Faster Bitmap Printing
For faster printing of bitmap fonts and graphics. If your document contains imported bitmap images, such as TIFF files or scanned images, it’s best to turn this off.
Font Substitution
The original bitmap fonts, not used in modern systems, for New York, Geneva and Monaco are replaced by the PostScript fonts of Times, Helvetica and Courier respectively. Some versions of Adobe Type Manager don’t support font substitution.
Fractional Character Widths
This option, also called Fractional Widths, can appear in an application’s Preferences window or in a printer dialog. If you can’t find it in either of these places you can use an FKEY called Font Control — see the Fonts chapter for details.
Fractional Widths isn’t normally enabled — this means that printed characters are spaced at multiples of one pixel (1/72 inch). The results don’t always look entirely satisfactory! When Fractional Widths is enabled the characters are spaced to a much greater accuracy, but may look nasty on the screen whose resolution is limited to 72 dpi or similar.
Graphics Smoothing
Eliminates harsh jagged edges from bitmap graphics. If your document contains imported bitmap images, such as TIFF files or scanned images, it’s often best to turn this off. Only available with the LaserWriter 8 driver if you’re using an Apple printer.
Layout
Prints 1, 2 or 4 pages on a single sheet, selected by 1 Up, 2 Up or 4 Up, with optional borders around each page.
Orientation
Determines whether the page is printed portrait (the usual way) or landscape (sideways). The dogcow indicates this but the little man icon (if provided) seems less confusing!
Page Size
Never the size you want! You may have to resort to a larger size than you require with the document carefully designed not to spill over the edges of the paper.
Precision Bit Map
Provides a reduction by 96% — also known as Bit Map Alignment. It aligns the 72 dots per inch (dpi) of the screen to the 300 dpi resolution of a laser printer, making one screen pixel equal to exactly four dots on the printer, resulting in a less jagged printout.
Scaling
Such reduction or enlargement may give lumpy results — try using 96, 72, 48 or 24%.
Tall Adjusted
Only for an ImageWriter printer with a resolution of 80 dpi horizontally and 72 dpi vertically. When you select Tall Adjusted it prints at 72 dpi in both directions. Although this option stops circles looking like ovals it increases the document’s width by 11%.
Text Smoothing
Improves the appearance text created with bitmap fonts. If you don’t select this option some text may appear ragged!
Printing in Action
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  Printing is initiated by using the Print command in the File menu or by dragging
a file onto a desktop printer. The Print dialog varies with the selected printer.
Printing from the Finder
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You can highlight documents in the Finder and select Print without manually opening any documents or applications. If the Desktop Printer Extension is enabled you can also drag documents onto any desktop printer. During the printing process the appropriate applications are launched, the printing is executed and the applications are closed again.
√Ö Consider your memory before printing too many files with different applications!
Print Desktop in the Finder’s File menu prints the Desktop as seen on the screen. Print Window prints the entire contents of a Finder window, even if it overlaps the screen.
› If you want to use Print Window on a window in List View you should use a scale
of 90% to ensure it fits onto the width of paper.
Printing with PrintMonitor
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The following information also applies to Desktop PrintMonitor:-
When you start printing PrintMonitor is launched automatically. If memory runs out during the operation, or if you suffer from slow printing, you should assign extra memory to your application and/or PrintMonitor. A PrintMonitor memory allocation of 256 K or more often solves such problems.
The Print Monitor Documents folder in the System Folder contains copies of documents that are in the process of being printed via PrintMonitor. If the Mac crashes or shuts down before printing is complete it resumes work on these files following a restart.
To cancel printing before a document is spooled into PrintMonitor you can press Esc or †-. After spooling, just use PrintMonitor or the Printing menu to cancel any item in the list.
Other Printing Problems
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Most monitors have a display resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi), horizontally and vertically. Some use 69 dpi or 76 dpi, creating discrepancies between the display and printed output. An on-screen ruler set to 72 or even 80 dpi can this even more confusing!
› Problems with margins often occur after you select a different printer. Just select Page
Setup (don’t alter any settings) and select OK.
› Applications that use PostScript directly, for example Illustrator or Freehand, don’t print
properly with a non-PostScript printer.
› Applications originally designed for MS-DOS machines can give negative graphics
with some printer drivers!
› Copies of documents where printing has been cancelled may appear in the Trash
— they have < print > at the ends of their file names. These files don’t need to be kept!
QuickDraw GX
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  QuickDraw GX lets you use GX fonts and GX-compatible applications to exploit
its enhanced printing facilities. To use it you must put the QuickDraw GX
extension in the Extensions folder.
QuickDraw GX increases the system RAM usage by over 1.2 M. A machine with only 8 M of RAM is hardly adequate — with GX and PowerTalk installed you’re limited to 7 printing extensions and 7 desktop printers. If you try to use more you’ll get memory alerts!
· When using the Vector Imaging System on a Power Mac with QuickDraw GX you
should turn off Modern Memory in the Memory control panel.
Applications that use GX include SimpleText, LightningDraw GX, Poster GX, and UniQorn. In some of these applications you can morph or modify the characteristics of GX fonts.
√π See the Fonts chapter for more about font files
Desktop Printers
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Desktop printers work with QuickDraw GX in the same way as described above.
You can set a schedule to print documents from within an application, whether GX-compatible or not, by double-clicking on a desktop printer. This shows a list of documents waiting to be printed. A printing schedule can also be setup from within certain GX-compatible applications.
Double-clicking any item in the Printing menu list provides a preview of the document by means of the SimpleText application.
Printing Extensions
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Extension Setup in the Printing menu shows a list of available GX printing extensions that match corresponding files in the Extensions folder. In the list of printing extensions you can check those you need or drag them into a new order.
Two particular extensions are supplied with QuickDraw GX:-
EPSExtension
  Lets you configure any PostScript file created using the LaserWriter GX printer
driver. If the file’s in EPSF form you can import it into other applications. Use
PostScript File Options in the Printing menu to select your options.
N-Up Printing Options
  For printing up to 16 pages on a single sheet of paper with optional borders
around each page. To set options choose N-Up Printing Options from the Printing
menu or click the N-Up in the Print dialog in a GX application. For non-GX
applications choose Page Setup in the File menu.
Paper Types
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  QuickDraw GX comes with a Paper Type Editor for creating custom paper types.
You can edit the size of the paper and its printable area. The resultant paper type
can be used with any application whether it’s QuickDraw GX aware or otherwise.
First select New in the editor’s File menu and choose a printer from the Printer pop-up menu. If you want to work from an existing paper size select one from the Based On menu. Alternatively, open a paper type file that’s already in the Extensions folder.
The Units menu lets you change units used for measurements. To set the paper size simply type into the Width and Height boxes — you can change the print area by dragging the picture outline or typing new values.
You must use Save As to save your new paper type in the Extensions folder. The paper type will then appear in Page Setup and in the Input Tray dialogs. To remove a paper type file simply drag it out of the Extensions folder.
QuickDraw GX is supplied with the following paper type files:-
3-Hole Punch
Letterhead
Stationery
Portable Digital Documents
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QuickDraw GX can create Portable Digital Documents (PDDs) that can be read by any Mac equipped with QuickDraw GX, whatever applications and fonts are on the machine. Previous attempts at a universal document format have not been successful due to a lack of general acceptance. Alternative examples include Acrobat and DOCMaker, the latter being the vehicle for this document!
  Any application, GX or non-GX, can create PDDs using PDD Maker GX, a special
desktop printer. The most convenient application for reading PDDs is SimpleText.
Since PDDs often contain all the required fonts for a document they can end up rather large! PDD Maker GX lets you to select which fonts to include in documents — All fonts, Non-standard Fonts or No Fonts. If either of the latter are chosen you’ll need to know which fonts exist on the destination machine.
GX Utilities
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When QuickDraw GX is installed it provides the Paper Type Editor together with the following applications:-
LaserWriter Utility
  A GX version of the utility for downloading fonts or PostScript files into a
PostScript printer or for setting various PostScript printer options.
√π See the Fonts and PostScript chapters for details on the LaserWriter Utility
Type 1 Enabler
  For converting Type 1 fonts into QuickDraw GX compatible versions. Although
the original fonts may only appear in certain sizes the converted versions are
scalable to any font size.
√π See the Fonts chapter for more about font files
QuickDraw GX Helper
  You must use Custom Install in the System installer to get this file. It lets you to
turn off QuickDraw GX from the  menu — useful for applications that are
