Core Printing Features
QuickDraw GX provides several core features you can use to implement basic printing capabilities:
Figure 1-11 Dragging a document to a desktop printer icon on the desktop
- You can create and manipulate common QuickDraw GX printing objects. For example, you create a job object for every printable document, and that job object references two printer objects: a formatting printer and an output printer. QuickDraw GX allows a user to specify a formatting printer that is different from
the output printer, so that QuickDraw GX can consistently format to the device used for final output, while permitting drafts to be printed on a different printer.- You can print documents in either of two ways. If your application stores each page
as a single picture shape, you can print a page at a time with a single command. Otherwise, you can print each page by drawing, in turn, all the shapes that make up that page. QuickDraw GX captures those drawing commands and sends the images to the printer.- You can display QuickDraw GX printing dialog boxes. You use QuickDraw GX functions to display these expandable, movable modal dialog boxes that allow
users to view windows that would otherwise be obscured, and you override a QuickDraw GX printing message to permit updating of windows behind the dialog box as it is moved. For general information on movable modal dialog boxes, see the Dialog Manager chapter of Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Toolbox Essentials.- You can support printing to desktop printers. A desktop printer is represented by an icon on the user's desktop. To print a document to a desktop printer, a user drags a document to the desktop printer icon, or else selects it and chooses the Print command from the Finder's File menu. A user can create multiple desktop printers. Figure 1-11 shows the document "My File" being printed to the desktop printer "Gutenberg."
