[Printing-architecture] [Printing-summit] Print Dialog: Preview Processing: Only A Question

[Tobias Hoffmann]

Petrie, Glen wrote:
> [...]
>
> [gwp] I think I understand your point. I would like to explore the 
> case where the app does the “layout” settings and, then, the print 
> dialog has “layout” settings. What is your expectation if the app 
> (like OpenOffice Write) sets (and flows) the document to letter size; 
> then the print dialog offers “page size” attribute and the user now 
> selects A4. Would you expect the print dialog to send the info back to 
> application to reformat/reflow the document or clip letter content 
> exceeding A4 or scale the letter content (without calling the 
> application) to fit A4. I guess I would you go with the last 
> option….but I have seen the system where letter formatted content is 
> printed on 4x6 cards (silly I know) by simply clipping the letter 
> content to 4x6. I had not seen any implementation of calling back to 
> the application.
>
In general: Only the application knows the "right" way to print it's 
content onto a differently sized paper:
- e.g. a PDF Viewer, or a DTP program has a fixed destination page size. 
So they will most likely give the user an option like "scale contents to 
fit page", as the user might want to get either of these.
- a web-brower or OO Writer will want to reflow the content.

Actually its more a question of Media Size - and Media selection - vs. 
Content Size:
I might (just a thought) want to print a Document flowed to A5 (Content 
size) to a A4 medium, and have it scaled to 141% e.g. for proofing fine 
details.
The content size is technically only a matter of the application, and 
the medium size only matters for the printing process. And the user has 
to decide whether to scale or print in 100% - when these size don't match.

The casual user, however, will never want to know any of these details 
and IMO in the reflowable case expects the media size to directly affect 
the content size, or being offered "scale-to-fit" for the fixed content 
size case (what does the usability testing say?).

Last but not least, the preview has to always show what the user will 
get, so callback to the application for potential reflow is necessary 
whenever the _content size_ changes.

Tobias