General panel
The General panel of the Print dialog box contains basic printing options like those available in most Print dialog boxes, plus a few options specific to InDesign.
The General panel controls which pages and objects print.
Note: Some General Panel options are also available in the Print dialog box for the current printer driver, which you can open by clicking Setup (Windows) or Printer (Mac OS X) at the bottom of the Print dialog box. Where options are duplicated, Adobe recommends specifying settings in the InDesign Print dialog box so that they can be saved as print presets, and to minimize potential conflicts and confusion about whether a setting has been made. Click Setup or
Printer only to set device-specific options not available in the InDesign Print dialog box.
Pages area
Copies: Up to 999 copies are allowed.
Collate: Prints the first copy of the entire requested page range before printing a second copy, and so on. When deselected, the specified number of copies of the first requested page are printed, followed by the specified number of copies of the second requested page, and so on. This feature is based on a software collation model (instead of a hardware collation model) in which the collation is being performed by the application as opposed to the device. To improve printing performance, this option is unchecked by default. This option is disabled unless multiple copies are specified in the Copies text box.
Pages: Either click All (the default), or type a page range using hyphens. For discontinuous ranges, you can enter commas and spaces. For example, to print page 1 and then pages 4 through
7, enter 1, 4-7.
You can also specify a page range by section by adding a section prefix and section number before a page range. For example, to print from Section 1, page 2 through Section 2, page 5, enter
Sec12-Sec25.
Reverse Order: Prints the last requested page first and the first last. When deselected (the default), pages are printed in the conventional ascending numerical order.
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Note: Some printers print pages face up so that when Reverse Order is selected, the page printing sequence becomes 3-2-1 rather than the original 1-2-3 sequence. This option doesn’t take that into account, so test on your equipment before running a job with it.
Print Master Pages: Prints the master pages and none of the document pages. When this option is on, the Range option is deselected and all master pages are printed, because master pages don’t have page numbers. Printing master pages is mostly useful for designers and art directors. This option should probably be deselected for most service provider scenarios.
Sequence: Prints even pages only, odd pages only, or both (the default). This option is used primarily when printing double-sided output on single-sided desktop printers, so for a service provider this option should usually be set to Both Pages when creating final output or print presets. This option isn’t available when Spreads is selected.
Spreads: Prints all of a spread’s pages on a single sheet of media. This option is usually of more use to designers than to service providers. Selecting this option does not automatically scale or reorient a spread to the selected paper size. To do so, go to the Setup area and adjust the Orientation or Scale options. If you’re proofing, simply choosing Scale To Fit is the easiest solution. If you’re printing final output of spreads, choose a media size that’s large enough for the job.
Options area
Print Nonprinting Objects: Causes InDesign to ignore the Nonprinting option applied to individual objects using the Attributes palette. Ask your customers if they applied the Nonprinting attribute to objects, and confirm whether those objects should print or not.
Print Blank Pages: Prints all pages in the specified range even if they contain no objects. To conserve media, when printing separations this setting never outputs a page of blank plates.
Print Visible Guide and Baseline Grids: Prints margin guides, ruler guides, column guides, baseline grids, bleed area, and slug area, using their colors as specified in the document. For example, if this option is on and the baseline grid is visible, the baseline grid will print, but if it isn’t visible, it won’t print. This option is primarily of use to designers and art directors. Service providers should usually make sure this option is off when creating final output or print presets.
Note: For optimal performance, turn the Print Visible Guides and Baseline Grids option off.
This makes the most difference when spreads containing transparency must be flattened. These options are automatically turned off when you select Separations in the Output panel.
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