Overview

Mac OS X introduces a new printing architecture that is significantly different from the Mac OS 8 printing architecture. The Carbon Printing Manager provides a bridge between these two architectures, allowing Carbon applications to print on both platforms.

When running on Mac OS 8 (version 8.1 or later), Carbon applications continue to print using existing printer drivers, and most Carbon Printing Manager functions call through to their original counterparts. On Mac OS X, Carbon applications will automatically use the new printing architecture and print through different drivers.

Because it does not fundamentally alter the structure of your application's print loop, adopting the Carbon Printing Manager is relatively simple. The most significant change is that all Printing Manager data structures are now opaque--meaning their contents and structure are hidden from applications. There are new functions for accessing fields within these structures. Most of the other functions defined by the Carbon Printing Manager are direct replacements for existing functions.