Printing

Although Flash is considered a Web and animation program, it fully supports printed output. The functionality and specific dialog boxes vary slightly from the Mac to the PC — while other variations are subject to which printers and printer drivers are installed on your machine. The File ð Page Setup dialog box is the most standard aspect of the program and the choices for paper size, margins, center positioning, and orientation are pretty intuitive.

However, the options available in the Layout area of the Page Setup dialog box on Windows or in the Print Margins dialog box on Mac (File ð Print Margins) deserve a little more attention. The options here are:

• Frames: Use this drop-down menu to choose to print either All Frames of the animation or the ecological default, which is to print the First Frame Only.

• Layout: There are three basic options:

  • Actual Size: This prints the frame at full size, subject to the accompanying Scale setting: At what scale do you want to print your frames? You enter a percentage.

  • Fit on One Page: This automatically reduces or enlarges the frame so that it fills the maximum printable area, without distortion.

  • Storyboard: This enables you to print several thumbnails per page in the following arrangements: Boxes, Grid, or Blank. There are accompanying settings for Frames Across, Frame Margin, and Label Frames. This is a great tool for circulating comps and promotional materials.

  Tip 

  When printing Storyboard layouts, use File ð Print Preview on Windows (or File ð Print ð Preview on Mac) to ensure optimal results.

• Print Margins (Mac only): Note the Disable PostScript check box. When you're printing single large areas of color surrounded by complex borders, problems may occur on PostScript printers. If you encounter such problems, try using the Disable PostScript check box in the Mac Print Margins dialog box (Edit ð Print Margins) or in the Windows Preferences dialog box (Edit ð Preferences ð General ð Printing Options). Otherwise, divide the complex area into several simpler areas and use the Modify commands (Modify ð Shape ð Smooth/Straighten/Optimize) to reduce the complexity of these areas (which may, however, drastically alter your artwork — so save first!).

• Print Preview: On Windows, use the Print Preview command to see an on-screen pre-view of how the printed output looks, based upon the options you've chosen in the Page Setup dialog box. On Macintosh, the Preview button is found in the Print dialog box (File ð Print) and will generate a PDF to give a preview of how the final page looks, based upon the options you've chosen in the Print Margins dialog box.

• Print: Just print it! (The Mac option for Preview is found here as well.)

• Send (PC only): This command invokes the default e-mail client so that you can readily send the Flash file as an attachment.

It is important to note that the Document background color (or Stage color) will not be included on printed output. If you want the background color to appear in your printed output, you must create a filled rectangle of the color that you want in the background and place it on a layer behind the other elements. The printer will then recognize this as artwork and include it in the output.