With Mac OS or Mac OS X, what can I do to make sure my document looks the same when I use a different printer?

When using Mac OS or Mac OS X, to make sure that your document looks the same when you use a different printer, follow the suggestions below:

• Get the printer driver for the destination printer and install it on your computer. With the driver installed, use the Print Center or Printer Setup Utility (Mac OS X) or the Chooser (Mac OS 9.x and earlier) to add the printer. Then open the document and use the driver's page setup options to match what appears on the screen with the output sent to the printer. To access the setup options, in most applications, from the File menu, choose Page Setup... .
  
  
• If the computer you print from is different from the computer you created the document on, make sure that the fonts you use in the document are on both computers. If the destination printer is a PostScript printer, unless you are using TrueType fonts, the fonts must also be installed on the printer.

  Note: With older PostScript printers, you should use PostScript fonts rather than TrueType fonts in your document.

• Make sure that the version of the program you used to create the document is the same version you use to print the document. For example, if you used Microsoft Word 2004 to create your document, you should use the same version of the program to print the document. If that isn't an option, you will have to translate the document into a different format. Then you should go through the document to check for formatting changes that the translation may have created.
  
  
• Double-check your formatting. Don't try to position an item on a page with the Spacebar. You should use soft returns instead of hard returns so you don't need to press Return at the end of every line. Similarly, don't create page breaks by pressing Return. Don't use tabs to indent paragraphs. In short, rather than treating your computer like a typewriter, use the program's formatting utilities instead. If your word processing program comes with templates, use those.