Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition

Before a document can be printed, page parameters must be established. In Mac OS X, this is handled through the Page Setup sheet located in an application’s File menu. The Page Setup sheet is where you specify the size paper to print on, whether you are going to print portrait (taller than wide) or landscape (wider than tall), the direction of the paper feed, and whether your document is going to be reduced or enlarged. All of these options are called page attributes and are managed through one screen, as shown in Figure 9-1.

Figure 9-1: General document printing parameters are set in the Page Setup sheet.

The Settings pop-up menu has two other choices, Custom Paper Size and Summary. As the name implies, Custom Paper Size allows for the specification of custom paper sizes. The Summary choice is a consolidated report of the various choices made under Page Attributes. The Summary pane is handy when you have made a lot of changes in different panes and want to verify the settings without having to go through the panes one at a time.

Applications use the information from Page Setup to establish the parameters for margins and where page breaks occur.

When you select Page Attributes from the Settings pop-up menu, the following options appear:

• Format for: Enables you to select a specific or a generic printer for which your software will format a document. A generic printer has a limited set of capabilities — essentially those that would be available on any printer. When you choose a specific printer, its printer type is displayed beneath the pop-up menu.

• Paper Size: Enables you to select from the various paper sizes. A generic printer supports only US Letter, US Legal, A4, and B5 paper sizes, but specific printers will generally support a wider range, possibly including such things as #10 envelopes or 3 x 5-inch index cards. The physical dimensions of the paper size are displayed below the Paper Size pop-up, as shown in Figure 9-1.

• Orientation: Determines whether the top of the printed page is on the short edge of the paper (portrait), the bottom of the long edge (landscape), or the top of the long edge (also landscape).

• Scale: Reduces or enlarges the printed document according to the percentage you enter based on the documents original size. Full size is 100%. Because the page image is rendered in resolution-independent PDF, you don’t have rigid minimum and maximum values imposed for scale. However, as a general rule, you should keep in mind the physical limitations of your printer and the resolutions it can print.