Printing from the Classic Environment

Even though pretty much every application for the Macintosh runs natively in Mac OS X, some people still rely on applications like QuarkXPress 4 that have to run in the Classic environment, the Mac OS 9 emulator that's built into Mac OS X. If that's you, eventually you have to print your documents. For the most part, printing works just like it did in Mac OS 9. You even select your output device in the Chooser, just like in the old days.

To select a printer in the Classic environment, you need to use the Chooser. To find the Chooser, you need to have a Classic application active. Look for the rainbow Apple icon in place of the standard blue Apple icon in the main menu bar. The Chooser is in the Apple menu (Figure 3.24).

Figure 3.24. The Classic Apple icon is rainbow colored instead of blue like Tiger's. You use it to access the Chooser when printing from Classic applications.

In the case of desktop inkjet printers, your printer should appear in the left side of the Chooser window. Just click the printer to select it. If you are using a PostScript device, such as a laser printer, first click the LaserWriter 8 icon in the left side of the Chooser window, and then click your printer's name in the right side of the window.

Some newer PostScript output devices don't include printer descriptions for the Classic environment. Mac OS X accounts for this by creating proxy printer descriptions for the Classic environment to use. These proxy printer descriptions reference the actual printer description that Mac OS X is using, which usually works fine. You'll know if they aren't working because you will get PostScript errors or your job won't print.

If you are having printing problems, and there are no Classic printer drivers available, think of this as a good time to look at upgrading your Classic applications to Mac OS Xnative versions. Apple is shipping new Macs that use the Intel Core Duo processor instead of the IBM and Freescale G4 and G5 processors. These Intel-based Macs will not run the Classic environment, which means that older applications, such as the venerable QuarkXPress 4, will not work.

Don't think of this as a doomsday prophecy, because it's not. If you want to learn more about how the Classic environment works and what's in store for Macs with Intel processors, take a look at Chapter 7.