Printing module

The Print action sends your PDF document to the native macOS print panel. Unlike the other modules, this is not a sidebar editing view: a single click from the Dashboard opens the standard macOS print window directly. The action is available from the General category of the Dashboard (shortcut ⌘P).

Starting the print

Open the PDF document you want to print in HtkPDF;
In the General category of the Dashboard, click the Print button;
The macOS print panel opens, identical to the one you know from Preview, Safari or any other macOS software.

The action always prints the current version of the document (including pending changes). You do not need to save before printing.

The macOS print panel

The standard macOS panel offers all the usual options:

Choosing the printer

In the Printer menu, select the destination printer. If you want to generate a PDF instead of printing physically, choose Save as PDF in the PDF drop-down menu at the bottom left of the panel — useful for producing a flattened PDF from a document that is still editable.

Pages to print

All: prints the whole document;
From … to …: lets you define a page range — and print a single page, by giving the same number for both bounds.

Layout

Copies: the number of copies to print;
Two-sided: a choice between single-sided printing, two-sided long-edge binding, or two-sided short-edge binding (depending on your printer's capabilities);
Orientation: portrait or landscape (generally left on Automatic so the PDF's native orientation is respected);
Pages per sheet: economical printing (2, 4, 6, 9, 16 pages per sheet).

Automatic scaling

HtkPDF prints in scale-down-to-fit mode: a page larger than the printer's paper is reduced to fit, a smaller page is never enlarged. Automatic rotation is also enabled (autoRotate: true): a landscape PDF is correctly oriented on portrait paper, and vice versa.

Two-sided printing and binding

For a booklet printed double-sided, check:

the Reverse page order option (useful for some short-edge bindings);
the Even pages only and then Odd pages only options if your printer does not support automatic duplex (so-called manual duplex mode).

Print preview

The macOS panel shows a real-time preview of the result. Any change of option (orientation, margins, pages per sheet, and so on) is immediately reflected in the preview. This is the moment to check that:

the margins meet your needs;
the annotations are included (watermarks, highlights, notes, and so on);
the orientation is correct throughout the document;
the image quality (for pages containing photographs) is satisfactory.

Including annotations

Printing uses an internal PDFView engine configured to include every annotation present (notes, highlights, drawings, watermarks, completed forms, signatures, and so on). You therefore get paper output faithful to what you see on screen.

For printing without annotations (for example to preserve the clean look of a document for archiving):

First open the Flatten module in a working copy;
Choose the Clean annotations option to remove the notes and highlights;
Then start the print.

Alternatively, some printers offer a "Print without annotations" option in their own dialog; check your hardware's specific capabilities.

Privacy

Printing uses the macOS spool system: no data is sent to HtkPDF or to external servers. However:

networked printers may keep a history of print jobs, accessible to administrators;
cloud-connected printers (AirPrint, manufacturers' online printing services, and so on) route the document over the Internet — for sensitive documents, favour a local USB or Ethernet connection;
password-protected PDFs that do not allow printing return an error at macOS panel level. Lift the restriction through the Unlock module if you are entitled to.

Typical use cases

Standard printing: preparing a paper file from a PDF;
Flattened PDF export: using Save as PDF from the print panel to produce a PDF with flattened annotations, without going through the dedicated module;
Economical printing: exploiting the macOS Pages per sheet option to save paper on long documents (contact sheets, drafts, internal copies).

Tip: to keep a paper record of a document with annotations, print the PDF as it is; to keep a clean record, flatten it first, then print. Both uses are legitimate depending on the context.

Screenshots

1 screenshot — click to enlarge