Chapter 14: Print, Fax, and Work with Fonts

How to…

• Set up printers

• Manage fonts

• Print and fax with your Mac

• Save documents as PDF files

While pundits and futurologists have long been forecasting the arrival of the paperless office, you’ve probably noticed that the more you work with your computer, the more you print. You have many more documents and texts to work with, and it’s still easier to read them on paper than it is to read them on screen. It’s also easier to make notes and comments on printouts, and pass the printed documents to others.

So you’ll naturally want to print from your Mac. Mac OS X offers excellent compatibility with many models of printers, and printing from a Mac is as easy as clicking a few buttons. Mac OS X also offers integrated faxing, so you can send a fax as easily as you print documents. Your Mac can receive faxes as well, storing them for later reading, printing them automatically, or sending them by e-mail.

Your Mac also lets you create PDF files, which retain formatting, styles, and graphics that you can send to other users, even those on other platforms, so they can see your documents exactly as you want them to be seen. Finally, Mac OS X offers tools for managing fonts and working with special characters to help you find the right characters and make your documents look their best.

In this chapter, I’ll tell you about using printers with Mac OS X. I’ll tell you how to set up your printer, how to print documents, and how to save documents as PDF files and view PDF files. I’ll show you how to both send and receive faxes with your Mac, discuss how to manage fonts, and tell you how to find special characters when you’re working with your documents.