Printing a Composite

Whether you're designing a document for black-and-white photocopying, color printing, professional printing, or even for PDF, you'll need to review drafts. By default, InDesign is set up to your system's default printer with just a few clicks.

1. Choose File ‚ Print, or press z +P or Ctrl+P.

   Tip ‚  

   If you press Return or Enter as soon as the Print dialog box displays, chances are that InDesign will print a usable draft on your laser printer. However, if you've selected a different page size , orientation, or other option, you may want to confirm the other settings.

2. At the top of the dialog box, the Printer pop-up menu is usually set to your system's default printer.

   You can leave this setting or locate and select the printer you're actually using. It's best to select your actual printer.

3. Go to the Output pane and make sure the Color pop-up menu is set to Composite Grayscale if you're printing to a black-and-white laser printer and to Composite CMYK if you're printing to a color ink-jet or laser printer.

4. Look at the page preview at the lower-left of the dialog box and make sure the page (indicated by the light-gray rectangle) fits within the printer paper (indicated by the blue line), as shown in Figure QS-20.

   
   Figure QS-20: The Print dialog box lets you confirm that your document fits on the paper in the selected printer, as well as set the appropriate print settings for your document and target printer.

5. Click Print.

   Cross-Reference ‚  

   For more information about printing, see Part VI: Output Fundamentals.