Windows XP Printing Primer

During Windows setup, a printer might have been detected and installed automatically, eliminating the need for you to install a printer manually. In this case, a default printer is already installed, and printing should be fairly effortless from your Windows applications. You can just print without worrying about anything more than turning on the printer, checking that it has paper, and choosing the File, Print command from whatever programs you use.

If you didn't have your printer on or connected during setup, or it isn't a Plug and Play printer, this process might not have happened successfully. Sometimes simply plugging in a new printer or having Windows do a scan for new hardware is enough to get things rolling. I'll talk about installation procedures later, but regardless of your current state of printer connectedness, as a user of Windows XP, you should know how to control your print jobs, print to network-based printers, and share your printer for others to use. This chapter covers these topics.

When you print from an application, the application passes the data stream off to Windows, which in turn spools the data to a specified printer. Spooling is the process of temporarily stuffing onto the hard disk the data to be transmitted to the printer, and then delivering it at the relatively slow pace with which that printer can receive it. Spooling lets you get back to work with your program sooner. Windows passes the stored information from the queue through a driver program, which sends the printer the specific codes and commands it needs to render, or draw, your document. Meanwhile, additional documents can be added to a printer's queue, either from the same computer or from users across the LAN.

The Printers and Faxes Folder

Windows gives you control over the printing system through the Printers and Faxes folder, shown in Figure 6.1. You can add printers, check the status of the queue, and manage print jobs by clicking Start, Control Panel, Printers and Other Hardware, Printers and Faxes.

Figure 6.1. The Printers and Faxes folder is the starting point for printer setup and management. Open it from the Control Panel item Printers and Other Hardware.

TIP

If you use Printers and Faxes frequently, you can add it to your Start Menu. Right-click the Start button and select Properties. View the Start Menu tab and click Customize. Select the Advanced tab, and check Printers and Faxes under Start Menu Items. Customizing the Start Menu is discussed in more detail in Chapter 23, "Tweaking the GUI," under "Start Menu Pizzazz!"

After you open the folder, you can view the Task menu for a particular printer by clicking that printer's icon.

The print spooler system takes control of all printing jobs, whether from Win32, Win16, OS/2, POSIX, or DOS applications. In cases of trouble (for example, ink or paper outage or paper jams), it also issues error or other appropriate messages to print job originators.

NOTE

I'll refer to the spooling and other printer management capabilities of Windows XP's GUI, taken as a whole, as Print Manager.

The Print Manager in Windows XP has the following features:

• It lets you easily add, modify, and remove printers right from the Printers and Faxes folder by using the Add Printer Wizard.

• The intuitive user interface uses simple icons to represent printers that are installed (available to print to) on the workstation, as well as network-based printers that have been identified. You don't need to worry about the relationships of printer drivers, connections, and physical printers. You can simply add a printer and set its properties. After it is added, it appears as a named printer in the Printers and Faxes folder.

• Multiple applications can send print jobs to the same printer, whether local or across the LAN, at the same time. Additional documents are simply added to the queue and are printed in turn.

• Default settings for such options as number of copies, paper tray, page orientation, and so forth can be automatically used during print jobs, so you don't have to manually set them each time.

• You can easily view the document name, status, owner, page count, size, time of submission, paper source and orientation, number of copies, and destination port of jobs. You also can pause, resume, restart, and cancel jobs; plus, you can rearrange the order of the print queue. In addition, you can temporarily pause or resume printing without causing printer time-out problems.

• You can set color profiles for color printers, ensuring accuracy of output color. Associating the correct color profile with all your publishing tools helps to ensure consistent color application throughout the publishing process.

LAN users can take advantage of the more advanced features:

• Browsing for LAN-based printers to which to connect has been made very simple. On small workgroup-type networks, in fact, Windows will identify shared printers and add icons for them automatically.

• You can easily share a printer over the LAN by modifying a few settings on the printer's Properties sheet. Your printer then acts as a print server for other computers. Shared printers can be given a meaningful name and comment, such as LaserJet in Ted's Office, which identifies them to LAN-based users surfing for a printer.

• Groups of users (administrators, guests, and so forth) can be assigned rights for printing, sharing, and queue management.

• The priority level of a print job can be increased or decreased.

• You can set printer properties, such as times of day when a network printer is available for use.

• In a busy LAN environment, you can attach a group (pool) of printers to one queue, so that output goes to the first available printer, and a notification is sent to you when the job is finished.

  To learn more about using a printer on the network, p. 635.

  
  

• The system can track the use of network print servers locally or remotely for later review or for billing purposes.

• With the Web printer feature (Internet Printing Protocol, or IPP), printers can be used and shared securely over the Internet, without using Virtual Private Networking (VPN).

To learn more about IPP, p. 612.