The File Menu

You must select one or more typefaces from the list to enable the Print button and Printing selections in the File menu. When you make a print selection one or more pages will be produced on the currently selected printer based upon the number selected and the layout used.

The Print button at the bottom of the main window will print the "Sample Page" by default, it may also be selected from the File menu or by the command key equivalent.

                   • Command key equivalents use the number keys since they are easier to
                   remember than a bunch of command-option-control-shift combinations.
                                       
                  • Page Setup may be accessed using the command-option-p key combination.
                   This is similar to other applications. Page Setup is accessed with some
                   frequency to enable/disable the “Unlimited Downloadable Fonts” option 
                   for postscript printers. It is described in the appropriate section below.

Before you begin any print job you should always double-check your Page Setup dialog, especially if you are going to jump right into a large number of pages. This also has the side benifit of re-affirming connection with the printer from the system’s point of view.

Page Setup

Below is an example of the standard Page Setup dialog used by theTypeBook. Use this dialog to select the appropriate page size and orientation for the currently selected printer. 

theTypeBook currently supports only the letter, legal, and A4 pages sizes. Selection of any other will produce an Error Alert when the print command is issued.

Before printing Line Showing specimen pages it is recommended that “Unlimited Downloadable Fonts” be enabled. Printing is faster when other specimens are printed if “Unlimited Downloadable Fonts” is not enabled. This option is accessed by clicking the “Options” button in the Page Setup dialog.

Page Setup Options

When you click to option button of the Page Setup dialog you are presented with a second dialog containing additional printing option. Of particular interest is the “Unlimited Downloadable Fonts” option at the bottom. This feature should  be turn on (if available) when printing specimen pages that show multiple fonts. This will avoid “out of memory” errors due to too many fonts. Conversely, the “Unlimited Downloadable Fonts” option should be turned off when printing specimen layouts using just one font.

There is no benefit to turning on “Larger Print Area”. If it is theTypeBook will adjust to ensure the image remains in the same position on the page.

The Print Dialog

For all remaining items in the File menu, except for Quit, the following Print dialog is used. It contains the standard items in addition to some unique to theTypeBook.

Use AKAs – This function is enabled only when one or more typefaces have been assigned an AKA name. When enabled, and turned-on the “true outline name” will be replaced by the text entered in the AKA dialog for each individual typeface specimen. 

Cropmarks –  Enabled only when the currently selected printer is a postscript printer. In particular a postscript imagesetter which usually has a large enough image area to support the addition of cropmarks. If you select cropmarks and the printer does not support a large enough area the print out will appear clipped off.

Family Page Breaks – Enabled only when one of the muliple fonts layouts is selected for printing. When enabled, and turned on, a new page will be started each time a new font family “basename” is encountered during printing.

Facing Pages – Consists of three options: Left, Right, and Center. The choices affect the sizes of the left and right margins. When Left is select all pages will be printed with the larger margin on the left side of the page producing a left facing page when looked at from the “outer edge”. When Right is selected, all pages are printed with the larger margin on the right side. Turning on the “Alternate Left/Right” option will cause the margin to switch back and forth beginning with the initail selection of Left or Right.

Even/Odd page printing –  The Buttons "Even", "Odd", and "Both"  become enabled only when the "Alternate Left/Right" checkbox is turned on. Odd prints only the left-facing pages, and Even prints only the right-facing pages from the currently selected range of typefaces. This greatly simplifies the creation of a catalog using two-sided page.

At the very bottom of the dialog is a brief status report of the Page Setup.

When OK is clicked in the Print dialog, a series of dialogs will be presented indicating the current printing status. The messages, and the order in which they appear are directly related to the type and brand of printer you are using.

The first possibility is the “Preparing Page” status dialog. It indicates the type of page being prepared. “Preparing Sample Page”, “Preparing Keycaps Page”, or “Preparing Character Set Page” will be displayed followed by the selected font name. During this time a complete Quickdraw picture is created and is usually very brief. This “picture” of the page is later translated by the print driver (chooser device) during printing. 

The remaining status dialogs depend on the type of printer in use and whether or not there is any background print utility active. If it is an ImageWriter you will receive a “Spooling Page...” dialog. If not it will proceed directly to “Printing Page...”. If background printing is active the page will be sent to disk otherwise it will go directly to the printer.

The print cycle may be cancelled at any time by pressing Command-period. If the page has already spooled to disk you will have to use the Print Monitor to cancel the output to the printer.

If you have trouble printing try re-initializing the print record saved in previous executions. Do this by holding down the option key while launching theTypeBook. If problems persist try switching to pure QuickDraw output by holding down the option key and selecting “Output Options” from the File menu. 

Output Options

The print driver normally performs all translation for the Mac’s native drawing form (Quickdraw) to the native form of the selected printer (which could be anything Postscript,TrueImage,PCL,etc.). When versions 3.0 and later are connected to a Postscript printer, theTypeBook will bypass the driver translation at certain points. This is necessary to provide landscape orientation and cropmarks on PS imagesetters. 

Any Postscript printer that uses version 5.2 or later of the standard Apple LaserWriter driver should be compatible with theTypeBook’s Postscript. Any other driver’s may or may not be. Especially if they are seen as a postscript driver by the Mac, but in reality they are something else.  Hence the “Output Options” provide a means to automatically override the direct use of postscript. If a non-postscript printer is selected theTypeBook will detect this and print using Quickdraw anyway.

The “Output Options” are accessible by holding down the option-key and selecting “Output Options” from the file menu. The Output Options temporarily replace the Page Setup selection in the File menu while the option key is held down. A dialog is displayed containing the two basic options:

Auto Postscript Detection – This is the standard operating mode. If a printer identifies itself as a postscript printer theTypeBook will send it postscript code directly. If a non-postscript printer is detected, output will be sent through the driver as Quickdraw and then translated by the driver. Also the appropriate resolution of a bitmapped version of the footer logo will be selected automatically.

Always Use Quickdraw – This mode overrides the automatic postscript detection and always draws pages using Quickdraw. The Quickdraw image is then translated by the printer driver as it is being sent to the printer. This represents the maximum compatibility archived through normal means.  In Quickdraw mode you also have the option to manually select a logo resolution. This provides some additional control over how the logo looks and how fast it will print.

When you have finished configuring the output click OK implement the changes. Or, Cancel to abort any changes. The selections you make will be remembered by theTypeBook until you change them again.