To control what users can print, remember the following items as you set up documents and movie clips for printing:

• Adjust the page layout in any frames that you designate as printable to match the desired printed output. Using Flash Player, you can print all shapes, symbols, bitmaps, text blocks, and text fields. Levels in a SWF file are not composited on print output.

• The printer driver uses the HTML settings for dimension, scale, and alignment in the Publish Settings dialog box. Use these settings to control the print layout.

• The selected frames print as they appear in the movie clip symbol. Let users print a movie clip that is not visible in a browser by using the Actions panel to set the movie clip’s _visible property to false. Changing the property of a movie clip with the setProperty action, tweening, or any transformation tool does not affect how a movie clip prints.

• For a movie clip to be printable, it must be on the Stage or pasteboard and it must be given an instance name.

• All elements must be fully loaded to print. Use the movie clip _framesloaded property to check whether the printable content is loaded. For more information, see _framesloaded (MovieClip._framesloaded property) in the ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference at www.adobe.com/go/learn_cs5_as2lr_en.

The ActionScript PrintJob class, in addition to improving print functionality available with the print() method, lets you render dynamic content at runtime, prompt users with a single print dialog box, and print an unscaled document with proportions that map to the proportions of the content. This capability is useful for rendering and printing external dynamic content, such as database content and dynamic text.

Additionally, with properties populated by the PrintJob.start()method, your document can access your user’s printer settings, such as page height, width, and orientation, and you can configure your document to dynamically format Flash Professional content that is appropriate for the printer settings.

1. Create an instance of the print job object: new PrintJob().
2. Start the print job and display the print dialog box for the operating system: PrintJob.start().
3. Add pages to the print job (call once per page to add to the print job): PrintJob.addPage().
4. Send the print job to the printer: PrintJob.send().
5. Delete the print job: delete PrintJob.

   The following example shows ActionScript code that creates a print job for a button:

   myButton.onRelease = function() 
   { 
       var my_pj = new PrintJob(); 
       var myResult = my_pj.start(); 
       if(myResult){ 
           myResult = my_pj.addPage (0, {xMin : 0, xMax: 400, yMin: 0, 
               yMax: 400}); 
           myResult = my_pj.addPage ("myMovieClip", {xMin : 0, xMax: 400, 
               yMin: 400, yMax: 800},{printAsBitmap:true}, 1); 
           myResult = my_pj.addPage (1, null,{printAsBitmap:false}, 2); 
           myResult = my_pj.addPage (0); 
           my_pj.send(); 
       } 
       delete my_pj; 
   }

   Only one print job can run at any given time. A second print job cannot be created until one of the following events occurs with the previous print job:

   • The print job is entirely successful and the PrintJob.send() method is called.

   • The PrintJob.start() method returns a value of false.

   • The PrintJob.addPage() method returns a value of false.

   • The delete PrintJob method is called.

Calling the ActionScript 2.0 PrintJob.start() method spools the print job to the user’s operating system and prompts the user’s operating system print dialog box to appear.

If the user selects an option to begin printing, the PrintJob.start() method returns a value of true. (The value is false if the user cancels the print job, in which case the script should call only delete). If successful, the PrintJob.start() method sets values for the paperHeight, paperWidth, pageHeight, pageWidth, and orientation properties.

Depending on the user’s operating system, an additional dialog box might appear until spooling is complete and the PrintJob.send function is called: Make calls to PrintJob.addPage() and PrintJob.send() expeditiously. If ten seconds elapse between the PrintJob.start() function call and the PrintJob.send() function call, which sends the print job to the printer, Flash Player effectively calls PrintJob.send(), causing any pages that are added by using PrintJob.addPage() to be printed and spooling to stop.

When a new print job is constructed, the PrintJob() properties are initialized to 0. When PrintJob.start() is called, after the user selects the print option in the operating system print dialog box, Flash Player retrieves the print settings from the operating system. The PrintJob.start() function populates the following properties:

You add pages to your print job with the ActionScript 2.0 PrintJob.addPage() method. Although the method can include as many as four parameters, the only required parameter is target/level. The three optional parameters are printArea, options, and frameNum.

If you are not using a particular optional parameter but are using other optional parameters, use NULL in place of the excluded optional parameter.

With all four parameters, the function uses the following syntax:

MyPrintJob.addPage(target[,printArea:Object, options:Object, frameNum:Number]):boolean;

If you provide an invalid parameter, the print job uses default parameter values.

Each call to add a new page is unique, which lets you modify parameters without affecting previously set parameters. For example, you can specify that one page print as a bitmap image and another page print as a vector graphic. You can add as many new pages to your print job as the print job requires. One call to add a page equals one printed page.

The ActionScript 2.0 target parameter can be either a number that represents a level (such as 0 for the _root document), or a string that represents the instance name of a movie clip ("myMovieClip").

Specifying a print area

The optional printArea parameter includes the following values:

{xMin:Number, xMax:Number, yMin:Number, yMax:Number}

The xMin, xMax, yMin, and yMax values represent screen pixels relative to the target level or movie clip registration point. The print area orientation is from the upper-left corner of the printable area on the page. If the print area is larger than the printable area on the page, the print data that exceeds the right and bottom edge of the page is clipped.

A.

Paper rectangle

B.

Page rectangle

C.

(594,774)

D.

(576,756)

E.

(0,0)

F.

(-18,-18)

If you don’t specify a print area, or if you specify an invalid print area, the print area defaults to the Stage area of the root document.

{printAsBitmap:boolean}

1. To send a print job to the printer after using the ActionScript 2.0 addPage() calls, use the PrintJob.send() method, which causes Flash Player to stop spooling the print job so that the printer starts printing.
2. To delete the print job after you send the print job to a printer, use the delete PrintJob() ActionScript function to delete the PrintJob object, which frees memory.

The ActionScript 2.0 PrintJob class, available for Flash Player 7 and later, offers many advantages over the print() and printAsBitmap() methods for printing. However, to print targeting Flash Player 6 and earlier versions, back to Flash Player 4.0.25 (Windows) and 4.0.20 (Macintosh), use print() and printAsBitmap() functions and frame labels.

To set up printing from Flash Player independent of the PrintJob class, specify frames to print and set their print area.

By default, when frames are printed, the document file’s Stage determines the print area. Any object that extends off the Stage is clipped and does not print. Loaded movies use their own Stage size for the print area, not the main SWF file’s Stage size.

As an alternative to using a document’s Stage size, set the following print areas:

• For either the Flash Player context menu or the ActionScript 2.0 print() function, designate the bounding box for SWF content as the print area for all frames by selecting an object in one frame as the bounding box. This option is useful, for example, to print a full-page data sheet from a web banner.

• The print() function lets you use the composite bounding box of all printable frames in a Timeline as the print area—for example, to print multiple frames that share a registration point. To use the composite bounding box, use the bMax parameter, as shown in the following example:

  print ("myMovie", "bmax")

• The print() function lets you change the print area for each frame, scaling objects to fit the print area—for example, to have objects of different sizes in each frame fill the printed page. To change the bounding box per frame, use the Frame parameter in the Print action parameters, as shown in the following example:

  print ("myMovie", "bframe")

• The print() function lets you designate the bounding box of a specific frame in a document as the print area for all printable frames in the document, as shown in the following example:

  print ("myMovie", "bmovie")

  You use the frame label #b to designate a frame to be used to designate the print area. The label #b must be on the same layer as a frame labeled #p.

  For more information about print() function parameters, see “print function” in the ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference.

The basic syntax for the ActionScript 2.0 print() function, which you can associate with a button or other trigger in your document to activate printing, is as follows:

print (target, "Bounding box");

The target parameter specifies the location of the frames that print, and the bounding box parameter specifies the print area.

Assign a print() function to a button, frame, or movie clip in your document to let users print Flash Professional content. If you assign a print() function to a frame, the action executes when the playhead reaches the designated frame.

The print() function lets you print frames in other movie clips in addition to the main Timeline. Each print() function sets only one Timeline for printing, but the action lets you specify any number of frames in the Timeline to print. If you attach more than one print() function to a single button or frame, the Print dialog box appears for each action executed.

See also “print function” in the ActionScript 2.0 Language Reference.