Chapter 14: Printing and Faxing

Chapter Introduction

You may not think of printing and faxing as having that much in common, but for Windows they are both ways of turning your document into a stream of dots and sending it somewhere, perhaps to a local printer six inches away, a network printer down the hall, or a fax machine in Ulan Bator.

Windows XP has a sophisticated and powerful printer management system. Setting up a Plug and Play printer is almost effortless, and even printers without Plug and Play are not that difficult. Once they're configured, you can quickly and easily print from your programs by using any printer accessible to your computer, and be confident that your printouts will look the way you want.

After your printer is installed, you can manage your print jobs from the Printers And Faxes folder, holding or canceling documents you print. You can change the printer configuration, including settings such as paper size and default fonts. If you run into printer trouble, you can use the Print Troubleshooter to find the problem.

Windows handles the fonts that appear on the screen and on your printed pages. Windows itself comes with fonts, as do many application programs, and you can buy and install additional fonts.

You can send or receive faxes using the Windows Fax Console, or you can use other faxing clients. Some previous versions of Windows had a fax feature, although neither Windows Me nor 98 came with one.