Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

Printing Artwork to a Local Printer

And by “ local printer” I don’t mean Joe’s Print Shack down the block

(though I’m all for supporting neighborhood artisans). Rather, this

exercise will take you through the steps of printing on an inkjet

or laser printer that’s attached directly to your computer or con-

nected via a local network. This makes the most sense if you have

a high-quality local printing device and you don’t need the volume

of copies that would be required to make commercial printing fea-

sible, effi cient, or thrifty. In fact, even if your job is destined for a

commercial printer eventually, it’s sometimes advantageous to cre-

ate a proof yourself fi rst. Putting your artwork through the print

process on your own can help you avoid potential problems down

the line, plus you’ll sound knowledgeable if you ever need to talk

to Joe the Print Guy.

Everything you need to print is housed in one gigantically useful

dialog box, evoked with the familiar command File→Print or the

keyboard shortcut Ctrl-P (-P). Like many behemoth dialog boxes,

the Print dialog box can seem overwhelming at fi rst, with more

choices than you’ll ever possibly need. But it’s truly one of the best

in the business in terms of comprehensive print capabilities. So in

this exercise, I’ll walk you through critical options available to you.

1. Open a fi le to print. Start by opening the fi le called

Murd