User Guide

378 Chapter 18: Printing from SWF Files
Starting a print job
Calling the PrintJob.start() method prompts Flash Player to spool the print job to the user’s
operating system and also prompts the user’s operating system print dialog box to appear.
If the user selects an option in the print dialog box 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 function
PrintJob.send is called: Calls to PrintJob.addPage() and
PrintJob.send() should be made 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 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:
Note: A point is a print unit of measurement that is equal in size to one pixel, a screen unit of measure.
For more information about unit equivalencies, see “About scaling” on page 380.
Adding pages to a print job
You add pages to your print job with the
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, which are
specified in the following sections.
Property Type Unit Notes
PrintJob.paperHeight
number points Overall paper height.
PrintJob.paperWidth
number points Overall paper width
PrintJob.pageHeight
number points Height of actual printable area on the page;
does not include any user-set margins
PrintJob.pageWidth
number points Width of actual printable area on the page;
does not include any user-set margins
PrintJob.orientation
string n/a Portrait or landscape orientation