Job Objects(IM:XP)

Inside Macintosh: QuickDraw GX Printing /: Chapter 1 - Introduction to Printing With QuickDraw GX / About QuickDraw GX Printing-Related Objects

Job Objects
The job object represents a print job that controls the way a document is printed. It contains properties to reference a formatting printer and an output printer. The formatting printer controls how the document is formatted. The output printer is the printer on which pages are printed. These specifications allow a document to be printed on the output printer yet retain the format specified by the formatting printer.
The job object also specifies additional properties, which include the following:

Reference constant. This property can be used for any application-specific purpose. For example, it can point to the contents of a document. It is discussed in the chapter "Advanced Printing Features" in this book.
Error. This property contains the last error associated with the print job. For information about accessing the error code, see the chapter "Core Printing Features" in this book.
Format list. This property specifies all of the formats that may be used with this print job. The first format in the list is the default format. For information about accessing the format list, see the chapter "Core Printing Features" in this book.
Paper-type list. This property specifies all of the paper types that may be used with this print job. The printer driver specifies the paper types in this list, although you can create new ones and add them to the list.
Format mode. This property specifies the preferred mode of printing the document associated with the print job; for example, using QuickDraw GX shape rendering, using raw PostScript, or using built-in fonts in the printer. For more information about the job format mode, see the chapter "Advanced Printing Features" in this book.
Page range. This property specifies the pages to print. For information about determining the page range, see the chapter "Core Printing Features" in this book.
Panel dimensions. This property specifies the size of panels in print dialog boxes, such as the Print and Page Setup dialog boxes. It is useful if you do not use the extended dialog item list resource to process events in dialog boxes and need to know where an event, such as a mouse-down event, occurred.

A job object also refers to a collection of items that can be specified for a print job. For more information about the job collection, see "Collection Objects" on page 1-18.
Most other objects refer to the job object. The reference allows the other objects to obtain information about the print job with which they are associated, and it especially allows them access to the reference constant property that points to application-specific information.