Printing Flash documents



    Print from Flash documents

    To preview and edit your documents, print frames from Adobe® Flash® CS4 Professional documents, or specify frames to be printable from Flash Player by a viewer.

    When printing frames from a Flash document, use the Print dialog box to specify the range of scenes or frames to print and the number of copies. In Windows, the Page Setup dialog box specifies paper size, orientation, and various print options—including margin settings and whether all frames are to be printed for each page. On the Macintosh, these options are divided between the Page Setup and the Print Margins dialog boxes.

    The Print and Page Setup dialog boxes are standard in either operating system, and their appearance depends on the selected printer driver.

    1. Select File > Page Setup (Windows) or File > Print Margins (Macintosh).
    2. Set page margins. Select both Center options to print the frame in the center of the page.
    3. In the Frames menu, select whether to print all frames in the document or only the first frame of each scene.
    4. In the Layout menu, select from the following options:
      Actual Size
      Prints the frame at full size. Enter a value for Scale to reduce or enlarge the printed frame.

      Fit On One Page
      Reduces or enlarges each frame so it fills the print area of the page.

      Storyboard
      Prints several thumbnails on one page. Select from Boxes, Grid, or Blank. Enter the number of thumbnails per page in the Frames box. Set the space between the thumbnails in the Frame Margin box, and select Label Frames to print the frame label as a thumbnail.

    5. To print frames, select File > Print.

    Use frame labels to disable printing

    To choose not to print any of the frames in the main Timeline, label a frame as !#p to make the entire SWF file nonprintable. Labeling a frame as !#p dims the Print command in the Flash Player context menu. You can also remove the Flash Player context menu.

    If you disable printing from Flash Player, the user can still use the browser Print command to print frames. Because this command is a browser feature, you cannot use Flash to control or disable it.

    Disable printing in the Flash Player context menu

    1. Open or make active the Flash document (FLA file) to publish.
    2. Select the first keyframe in the main Timeline.
    3. Select Window > Properties to view the Property inspector.
    4. In the Property inspector, for Frame Label enter !#p to specify the frame as non-printing.

      Specify only one !#p label to dim the Print command in the context menu.

      Note: You can also select a blank frame (rather than a keyframe) and label it #p.

    Disable printing by removing the Flash Player context menu

    1. Open or make active the Flash document (FLA file) to publish.
    2. Select File > Publish Settings.
    3. Select the HTML tab and deselect Display Menu and click OK.

    Specify a print area when printing frames

    1. Open the Flash document (FLA file) containing the frames you will set to print.
    2. Select a frame that you have not specified to print with a #p frame label that is on the same layer as a frame that is labeled with a #p.

      To organize your work, select the next frame after a frame labeled #p.

    3. Create a shape on the Stage the size of the desired print area. To use a frame’s bounding box, select a frame with any object of the appropriate print area size.
    4. Select the frame in the Timeline that contains the shape to use for the bounding box.
    5. In the Property inspector (Window > Properties), enter #b for Frame Label to specify the selected shape as the bounding box for the print area.

      Only one #b frame label per Timeline is allowed. This option is the same as selecting the Movie bounding box option with the Print action.

    Change the printed background color

    You can print the background color set in the Document Properties dialog box. Change the background color for only the frames to be printed by placing a colored object on the lowest layer of the Timeline being printed.

    1. Place a filled shape that covers the Stage on the lowest layer of the Timeline that will print.
    2. Select the shape and select Modify > Document. Select a color for the printing background.

      This action changes the entire document’s background color, including that of movie clips and loaded SWF files.

    3. Do one of the following:

      • To print that color as the document’s background, designate to print the frame in which you placed the shape.

      • To maintain a different background color for non-printing frames, repeat steps 2 and 3. Then place the shape on the lowest layer of the Timeline, in all the frames that are not designated to print.

    Print from the Flash Player context menu

    Use the Print command in the Flash Player context menu to print frames from any Flash SWF file.

    The context menu’s Print command cannot print transparency or color effects and cannot print frames from other movie clips; for more advanced printing capabilities, use the PrintJob object or the print() function.

    1. Open the document.

      The command prints the frames labeled #p by using the Stage for the print area or the specified bounding box.

      If you haven’t designated specific frames to print, all frames in the document main Timeline print.

    2. Select File > Publish Preview > Default or press F12 to view your Flash content in a browser.
    3. Right-click (Windows) or Control‑click (Macintosh) in the Flash content in the browser window to display the Flash Player context menu.
    4. Select Print from the Flash Player context menu to display the Print dialog box.
    5. In Windows, select the print range to select which frames to print.
    6. On the Macintosh, in the Print dialog box, select the pages to print.
    7. Select other print options, according to your printer’s properties.
    8. Click OK (Windows) or Print (Macintosh).
    Note: Printing from the context menu does not interact with calls to the PrintJob object.