Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

PostScript-Only Options in the Print Dialog Box

PostScript is the industry standard printing language, and

virtually every professional level printer and plate-making

device uses PostScript. Most home or offi ce printers are not

PostScript capable and therefore the Output and Graphics

tabs of the Print dialog box are likely to be full of dimmed

choices when you have your local printer set as your device of

choice. That doesn’t mean, however, that you don’t want to

know about these options in the event you want to have a rea-

sonably informed conversation with your commercial printer.

If you’d like to follow along and see these screens on your

computer, open PostScript ready.ai from the Lesson 12 folder

of Lesson Files-AIcs5 1on1. Press Ctrl-P (-P) to bring up the

Print dialog box, click Output in the list on the left, and choose

either Adobe PDF or Adobe PostScript File in the Printer set-

ting at the top of the dialog box.

The fi rst thing you’ll notice, as you can see in the image below,

is the previously dimmed PPD setting actively fi lls in with the

appropriate PostScript printer description. The PPD is a fi le

that describes the capabilities, features, and instructions for

the PostScript device you (or more likely your commercial

printer operator) select. Set it to Adobe PostScript if you’d

like to see the options

The fi rst of your now available choices is the Mode setting ...