Manager: Printing Manager

Carbon introduces substantial changes to the Printing Manager, which are summarized here. For more information, read the “Carbon Printing API” specification, available at <http://developer.apple.com/macosx/carbon/>

* The Print Record has been split into two separate entities: a PrintSettings object and a PageFormat object. Applications will be given references to these two privately defined data structures. These references are then used to query the Printing Manager for information contained within the objects.

* A consequence of splitting the Print Record and making it private is there are no fixed sizes. Applications will be able to "extend" both the PrintSettings and PageFormat objects. But applications must not assume a specific size when storing and retrieving a PageFormat with documents.

* The Printing Manager will supply functions for flattening and restoring both the PrintSettings and PageFormat object. When storing printing information with documents it will suffice to store just the PageFormat object. If older versions of your application store a print record with a saved document, you may continue to do so to provide backward compatibility.

* Application developers should reduce the use of calls that append items to print dialogs. We expect to provide a new panel-based interface in the near future.

* There are many improvements to the QuickDraw interfaces for Carbon, including new accessor functions and data structures that should be used. Please see the Carbon QuickDraw specification for more details.

* All print records use the "draft" style, not the "deferred" style, which implies that a print driver must handle the spooling if it wants to provide spooling for the user. Many, if not all, print drivers perform their own spooling and don't require applications to call PrPicFile() to implement spooling. Because it is rarely used, we are eliminating system level spooling code from the Printing Manager.

* The Printing Manager will now enforce an order in which some routines are called. Any routine used out of scope will return an error.

* All Printing Manager routines are only valid within a PMBegin/PMEnd block.

* PrintSettings and PageFormats are automatically disposed of during a PMEnd call.

 PrClose

PrClose does nothing; you don't need to call it.

 PrCloseDoc

In place of a print record, the Printing Manager uses a reference to an opaque, variable-length data structure.

 PrClosePage

In place of a print record, the Printing Manager uses a reference to an opaque, variable-length data structure.

 PrCtlCall

To send various print requests to the printer driver, use the higher-level functions instead.

 PrDlgMain

Apple will introduce new panel-based dialog boxes for printing. Your application should limit calls to PrDlgMain for adding items to the Page Setup and Print dialog boxes.

 PrDrvrClose

This and other low-level Printing Manager functions aren't supported.

 PrDrvrDCE

This and other low-level Printing Manager functions aren't supported.

 PrDrvrOpen

This and other low-level Printing Manager functions aren't supported.

 PrDrvrVers

 PrError

 PrGeneral

Apple will supply more specific printing functions to use in place of PrGeneral.

 PrintDefault

In place of a print record, the Printing Manager uses a reference to an opaque, variable-length data structure.

 PrJobDialog

In place of a print record, the Printing Manager uses a reference to an opaque, variable-length data structure.

 PrJobInit

Apple will introduce new panel-based dialog boxes for printing. Your application should limit calls to PrJobInit for adding items to the Page Setup and Print dialog boxes.

 PrJobMerge

In place of a print record, the Printing Manager uses a reference to an opaque, variable-length data structure.

 PrLoadDriver

This and other low-level Printing Manager functions aren't supported.

 PrNoPurge

 PrOpen

PrOpen performs nothing; you don't need to call it.

 PrOpenDoc

In place of a print record, the Printing Manager uses a reference to an opaque, variable-length data structure.

 PrOpenPage

In place of a print record, the Printing Manager uses a reference to an opaque, variable-length data structure.

 PrPicFile

This function has become obsolete. Printer drivers perform their own spooling; therefore, applications end up not calling PrPicFile.

 PrPurge

 PrSetError

 PrStlDialog

In place of a print record, the Printing Manager uses a reference to an opaque, variable-length data structure.

 PrStlInit

Apple will introduce new panel-based dialog boxes for printing. Your application should limit calls to PrStlInit for adding items to the Page Setup and Print dialog boxes.

 PrValidate

In place of a print record, the Printing Manager uses a reference to an opaque, variable-length data structure.