Printers
Printers
The Printers preference lets you add, remove, and select a default printer in the top part of the Printers panel (the Printers window) and check the status of your print job and other jobs pending on your machine for that printer in the bottom part of the panel (Print Jobs for [name of selected or default printer]).
To add a printer click Add..., then choose whether you want to add a local or network printer in the panel that appears and click Continue.
You can print to an Appletalk network printer without running World o' Networking (explained below); to print to any other type of network printer you must be running World o' Networking.
If you choose Local Printer and click Continue, a window opens that asks for a printer name, type (there's a Preview option in the Printer Type popup, covered momentarily), and connection method (there's also a Print to file option, which we'll get to in a minute); with network you're asked for a printer name and type. Supply the required information and click Add to add your printer to the Printers portion of the preference panel; click Make Default if you want this as your default printer.
If you want to print to a non-Appletalk network printer, you must be running World O' Networking (aka WON, the network sharing interface, located in the /boot/optional/experimental directory--see the World O' Networking Read Me file for more information). With WON running, when you choose to add a network printer you'll be asked in the Add a Network Printer dialog for a Network printer path. If you know the path to the printer, you can type it in. Otherwise, click the Browse... button to open a selection window that shows what's on the network and choose your printer there to set the path.
To remove a printer, highlight it and click Remove. Note that in theTracker, when you click on a network printer that's already configured, the Printers pref opens with that printer selected, so you can see pending jobs, make it the default printer, remove it.
You'd probably use Print to file, in combination with an Apple Laserwriter-compatible printer to send PostScript output to a file. Print to file in combination with other printer types produces output to a file in the page description language of the specified printer.
Print Preview is a virtual, onscreen printer that lets you view print output onscreen, and make decisions about font, layout, and so on, without wasting paper. You access it by choosing Add in the Printers panel; this brings up the Add a Local or Network Printer dialog, where you choose Local Printer and then click Continue. The Add a Local Printer dialog opens; choose Preview from the Printer Type popup, and you'll be able to review onscreen what your print output will look like on paper.