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ISO 9000 | ISO 14000 |
 GMP Consulting |
PART VII
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| • You can’t print what you can’t set up | 613 |
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| • Printing...at last! | 623 |
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| • The fine art of previewing | 654 |
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| • Putting it all together: creating a print style | 658 |
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| • Tips for reliable printing | 660 |
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So you’ve created some great designs or a dynamite page layout in CorelDRAW. Now what? Most likely, you want to print your handiwork. Even if you create art solely for placement in other applications, you are likely to want print proofs along the way. We know many Web designers who print their work, because they proof better on paper.
DRAW has helped create a collective reputation among illustration software for focusing more on what can be produced on screen than what can be produced on paper or film. Let’s just say that the range of work that can be printed is a subset of that which can be produced. Workarounds have helped, but one goal in each DRAW version has been to improve the print functions, minimizing the need for workarounds and troubleshooting. DRAW 9 furthers those efforts.
In terms of “features”—things that Corel’s marketing department could latch onto—there might be only one: the Mini-Preview option shown in Figure 26.1. This nice addition allows you to quickly get to the most frequently used print settings while also previewing the result.
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FIGURE
26.1 DRAW 9’s Mini-Preview is certain to
be an instant hit with users.
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By default, Mini-Preview is hidden, but you can unhide it by clicking on the new double-arrow button at the upper-right corner of the dialog. The last state of Mini-Preview will be remembered for future files and sessions of DRAW. The traditional Print Preview and additional imposition and prepress options are available by clicking the Print Preview button at the bottom of the dialog.
We welcome the return of Mini-Preview (it left the scene at DRAW 5) as it makes the entire print operation more intuitive. Working in traditional Print Preview can be trying at times, because there are so many portals into and out of it, you can easily get lost. For instance, once in Print Preview, who would guess that clicking Options returns you to the general multitabbed Print dialog? And if you click Close, what are you closing, the Print Preview or the entire Print dialog? For most operations, using the Mini-Preview will be an easier experience.
Some tasks still require the traditional Print Preview, and we’ll devote an entire section to it later in this chapter.
Beyond Mini-Preview, Corel’s engineers have been busy making printing in DRAW 9 more intuitive, and they have reduced the number of dialogs you must navigate to get where you want to go. This is not to say that prepress printing is easy—it’s not. But DRAW 9 goes a long way toward reducing its stress quotient. With that in mind, we can say with confidence that most of the print features in DRAW 9 are relatively easy to decipher—and most work as advertised. This chapter explores all that is old and new in DRAW’s print engine.
Before moving on to DRAW’s printing controls, let’s take a look at DRAW 9’s page setup mechanics.
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A Word about PostScript Printers Throughout this chapter we will refer frequently to PostScript printers and non-PostScript printers. PostScript is a very powerful page-description language developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated. A PostScript .prn file is simply a program for the PostScript printer—nothing more than a recording of the various commands that would normally be sent directly to the printer from the application. One big plus for PostScript is that its command language is written as ASCII text. That means people knowledgeable in PostScript can find useful troubleshooting information in the file, should something fail to print correctly. And even less savvy users can check this file to see that all fonts are properly downloaded. You simply look for lines like the following: %%BeginFont: AachenBT-Bold %!PS-AdobeFont-1.0: AachenBT-Bold 003.001 Non-PostScript printers utilize a variety of command languages, typically Hewlett Packard’s PCL (Printer Control Language). These languages have their own strengths but are generally less robust than PostScript. And many high-end output devices won’t use anything but PostScript. |
You Can’t Print What You Can’t Set Up
The Page Setup dialog is available from Layout Ø Page Setup or by going the scenic route through Tools Ø Options Ø Document Ø Page. You can also get to Page Setup by double-clicking the page border on screen. The jury is still out on what we affectionately refer to as the Options Gorilla—the single clearing house for all options, controls, and settings across the program—but at least in DRAW 9 access to and through the Gorilla is faster.
DRAW Does BIG
One of the significant changes introduced when DRAW moved to a 32-bit operating system was the increased maximum page size you can design and print. In prior versions, the maximum drawing page was 30 by 30 inches. That limit has increased to a truly unimaginable 150 by 150 feet. So feel free to design as large a page as you want. The bigger problem may be finding a device that can print it. Today’s market offers an increasing number of devices to handle large output, and later we’ll show you how to print BIG using even your humble little desktop printer.
Page Setup: The Basics
Page Setup has five (well, four and a half) pages. Here, we’ll summarize the more fundamental steps of defining your document settings and cover some of the changes in DRAW 9.
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