Page descriptions usually originate at printers. Printers contain collections of page descriptions that represent all the page types available on the printer. The user selects a printer and the page and media selections for the folio pages.
Page descriptions are also available in several other ways:
The page descriptions are bound to the folio. If you use a page description from the target printer to create a document folio, the folio can be printed without intervention. If the page description bound to the folio does not match one of the printer page descriptions, the mismatch must be resolved. See "Resolving page description mismatches" on page 170 for more information.
Figure 85
If you create a page description for a folio independent of the target printer, page description mismatches can occur when the folio is printed.
Paper is an example of a common media type. A media type's characteristics include its material, color, texture, inherent thickness, and transparency. Instances of TPrintMedia indicate the preferred media for a page description. The default is to use the standard media available on the printer--if no printer is specified, then any media is used.
TStandardPageDescription is a standard page description that can be used for most pages.
You must have a TPageDescription for every printable page, but you can use a single page description if all of the pages in a folio are the same. You use page descriptions to lay out views for each page of a folio. When you submit a page for printing you must also submit the page description for the page.
A page description describes the dimensions of the page by defining three rectangular areas:
There are two types of TPageDescription objects--dimensionless and exact. The dimensionless form initializes the rectangles to a generic 8.5 x 11 inch US letter page, with an 8 x 10 inch centered printable area. The exact form sets the printable and margin rectangles to equal dimensions.
The exterior dimensions of the print media. TPageDescription provides constants that represent standard page sizes, such as US Letter, US Legal, A4 Letter, and Business Envelope.
The portion of the physical page on which a printer can print. The printable rectangle is used to map any given page onto the printable area of an actual printer. If there is a one-to-one mapping between the areas, the page is printed as is. If not, the page description printable area is mapped onto the printer printable area according to one of the page description mismatch options: Tile, Clip, or Scale. (See "Resolving page description mismatches" on page 170.) Although you can change the dimensions of the printable rectangle, generally you cannot force a printer to print beyond its printable rectangle. The dimensions of the printable rectangle vary widely among printer manufacturers.
This area, also referred to as the user rectangle, can represent any area within the physical page--it is completely independent from the printable rectangle. The margin rectangle is not used by Printing services; it is reserved for program-level use. Generally, you use it to mark the boundary of the printable area within your program.
Any one of these areas can be the active rectangle, the rectangle that designates which part of a page the system is to use for pagination, tiling, clipping, or scaling. The origin for all of the page areas is the top left corner of the physical page. The printable and margin rectangles are always offset with respect to this origin.
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