CorelDraw 10 : Printing - Preflight and Print Preview

CorelDraw has two features that will help you determine if the printout will turn out as you expect—before committing it to paper or sending it to a service bureau. First, you can open the Preflight tab of the Print dialog box to view problems with the printout. Second, using the Print Preview feature, you can see exactly what the printout will look like. If you want to print a proof of a drawing but it is larger than the page or very small, you can scale the drawing in the Print Preview window.

To perform a preflight check:

1.	When you open the Print dialog box, CorelDraw automatically does a preflight check on the current document. If there are problems, they are noted on the Preflight tab (Figure 1). Figure 1. CorelDraw continuously performs preflight checks as you set print options.
2.	To view preflight problems (Figure 2), click the Preflight tab. Figure 2. Select a listed problem for a detailed explanation, as well as suggestions for correcting it.
3.	To see an explanation of a problem (along with suggested solutions), select a problem in the top part of the dialog box.

To open Print Preview:

• If you have the Print dialog box open, click the Print Preview button.
  
  or
  
  
• Choose File > Print Preview.
  
  The Print Preview window opens (Figure 3). When you're ready to return to your drawing, click the Close button.
  
  

  Figure 3. Use Print Preview mode to preview your printouts before committing them to paper or sending them to a service bureau.

  

  
  

To resize a drawing in Print Preview:

1.	Open the Print Preview window by clicking Print Preview in the Print dialog box or by choosing File > Print Preview.
2.	Click on the drawing. Handles appear around the drawing.
3.	Drag a handle to resize the drawing.

  Tips

• Scaling the drawing in Print Preview mode doesn't scale the actual drawing in your document. It only changes the size of the drawing when it's printed.

• You can drag the drawing to a new position on the page, if you wish. This is handy if the image is partially outside the page boundary, for example.

• While in Print Preview mode, you can zoom in or out to get different views of the drawing. Click the Zoom Tool in the Print Preview Toolbox (Figure 4). To zoom in, click in the Preview window or drag-select an area. To zoom out, press as you click, press , or right-click the drawing and choose Zoom Out from the pop-up menu that appears (Figure 5). For more precise zooming, you can also use the zoom tools in the toolbar (Figure 6).

  Figure 4. Use the Zoom Tool to change the magnification level.

  

  Figure 5. Right-click to choose any of these common Zoom settings.

  

  Figure 6. When the Zoom Tool is active, you can also select Zoom commands from the toolbar.

  

• You can restrict a preview to just selected objects, if you wish. After selecting the object(s), choose View > Preview Selected Only and then View > Full-Screen Preview. To exit from the preview, press any key.

• Are you wondering why your color drawing is previewing in grayscale? It's probably because you have a black-and-white or grayscale printer chosen. By default, preview mode uses the characteristics of the chosen printer to determine what should be displayed. To force a color or a grayscale preview, choose View > Preview Color > Color or View > Preview Color > Grayscale.