Home → Windows 7 Help → Printing → Choosing Print Options
1.1. Choosing Print Options
Double- or single-sided. Grayscale or color. Landscape or portrait.
These are just some of the options you might see when you print. This article describes common Windows printing options and how to select them.
Remember, your printing options depend entirely on the printer model and software application you're using. Consult the manual that came with your printer or program for more details.
Printing basics
Printing in Windows is often as simple as clicking the File menu found in most programs, and then clicking Print.
Doing so opens the Print dialog box. This is where you can change basic settings such as what printer to use or how many copies to print. (The dialog box you see might look different from the one shown here, depending on your software and printer.)
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What you see
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What it means
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|---|---|
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Select Printer |
Shows the available printers on your computer. You can also choose to print something like a fax or a Microsoft XPS file. |
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Find Printer |
Helps locate network printers. This option is useful in office settings or for home networks. |
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Print to file |
Allows you to save a document as a .prn file. This option is useful if you want to print something later, but it doesn't always work with modern USB printers. If you have a USB printer, you might prefer to print to the Microsoft XPS Document Writer. |
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Preferences |
Opens the Printing Preferences dialog box, where you can choose options such as paper size and layout. |
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Page Range |
Tells Windows what to print. Click Selection to print only highlighted text or graphics. Click Current Page to print only what you see. To print part of a document, click Pages and then enter the page numbers separated by hyphens. For example, type 57 to print only pages 5 through 7. Some programs let you choose non-sequential pages too. If so, you can type 1, 4, 8 to print only pages 1, 4, and 8, for example. |
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Number of copies |
Print multiple copies of a document, file, or picture. Select the Collate check box to print all pages in a document in order before printing additional copies. |
Preferences vs. properties
Every printer manufacturer and software publisher has its own way of doing things. Double-sided or color printing might require you to click a button labeled "Preferences," "Properties," or even "Advanced."
That said, there are two standard printer-related options you'll see frequently: printing preferences and printer properties. Here's what they mean.
Printing preferences
Printing preferences are the options available on your printer.
, and then, on the Start menu, clicking Common choices you'll find in this dialog box include:
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Page orientation or layout. Choose between tall (portrait) or wide (landscape).
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Paper or sheet size. Letter, legal, A4, or envelope size are common options.
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Paper or output source. Selects a paper tray. Printers store paper in different trays.
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Double-sided (duplex) printing. Print on one, or both, sides of a sheet.
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Print color. Color or black-and-white (grayscale) prints.
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Staple. A common option on workplace printers.
Printer Properties
The Printer properties dialog box is typically where you'll find options governing the printer itselfupdating drivers, configuring ports, and other hardware-related customizations.