How to print on Mac

If you're new to macOS, you might not know how to print documents right away. But rest assured, it's pretty easy to get a physical copy. The following article will show you how to print on a Mac.

Reading and editing documents on your Mac screen is most convenient, but printing documents is a great way to see errors and avoid distractions on your computer. Printing also allows you to preserve documents, avoid dead links in the future, and give your machine a break.

Set up to print on your Mac

The first step is to prepare your Mac and printer. Then you need to connect the two devices. It's fairly easy to pair both wired and wireless printers with your Mac, and the system will remember each printer you've connected for future use.

After pairing your printer with your Mac and installing the necessary software, you need to choose something to print on. You can print from most apps on your Mac, so your options for this are quite large.

You can print a text document from Pages or Word, an article you read on Safari, or a formula you typed or found on Google Chrome. You can print PDF files from Preview, spreadsheets from Excel or Numbers.

How to Print Anything on Mac

Once you know what you want to print, the steps you need to follow are quite simple. Here's what you need to do:

1. In the document or on the page you want to print, click File > Print in the menu bar. Or enter Cmd + P in almost any Mac application.

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2. The Print menu will open. Select the printer you intend to print to from the Printer drop-down menu .

3. Now click the Print button .

Anything you want to print will start printing immediately!

How to print multiple copies from a Mac

Some printers also function as photocopiers. If your machine doesn't have it or you don't want to have to set it up, you can print multiple copies of anything you want to print from the Print menu on your Mac. To do this:

1. Open the Print menu by clicking File > Print or pressing Cmd + P on the keyboard.
2. Click the up arrow next to the Copies box to increase the number of copies you want to print at once, or type the number of copies you want to print in the box.
3. From there, just click Print to start printing multiple copies.

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You can also print on both sides of the paper through your Mac if you want to save paper while printing multiple copies of something.

How to print to different paper sizes on Mac

In most cases, your Mac will assume you're printing with Letter-sized printer paper - paper that measures 8.5 x 11 inches.

If you want to print to Legal-sized paper (8.5 x 14 inches) or photos (4 x 6 inches), you'll need to adjust some settings on your Mac before pressing Print. The steps for that are as follows:

1. In the Print menu, you will need to scroll down to the Paper Size drop-down menu . If you don't see Paper Size , expand the Paper Handling heading . Toggle Scale to Fit Paper Size and open the Destination Paper Size drop-down menu available below it.

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2. Select the paper size you intend to print on in the Paper Size or Destination Paper Size drop-down menu .

3. Make sure the custom size paper is inserted into the printer correctly and click Print to print whatever you want!

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How to pause or cancel printing on Mac

It's easy to start printing something like a poster and suddenly realize that it has a major typo. It's also easy to click Print on something and suddenly find yourself needing to put more paper in the printer.

Luckily, you can cancel or pause a print job to correct any errors and start printing again when you're ready. To cancel or pause what you're printing, follow these steps:

1. Open the Printer window . You can open this window by clicking the printer icon that appears in the Dock when you start printing something.

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2. To pause printing, click the Pause button at the top of the printer window or to the right of the print job. Your printer will stop at any location during the printing process. This is your opportunity to load more paper into the printer or fix a paper jam.

3. To restart printing a paused job, click the Resume button , which replaces the Pause button at the top of the printer window.

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4. To cancel the print job, click the X button to the right of your print job. Your printer will stop printing completely.

5. To restart a stopped job, you will have to return to the application you are printing from and press Print again. You will not be able to restart from the printer window.

For example : If you don't see the printer icon in the Dock, the print job may have completed and cannot be canceled. But if that's not the case, you can also open the Printer window by going to System Settings > Printers & Scanners , selecting your printer, and clicking Printer Queue .

How to print PDF files on Mac

Maybe you want to save a document or web page as a PDF before printing. No need to open Word or Preview first. You can save everything as PDF right from the Print menu.

To "print" anything to PDF format, here's what you need to do:

1. Open the Print menu and click the drop-down arrow next to the PDF option at the bottom.

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2. Select the Save as PDF option . This will open a small window where you can name the PDF file and choose where to store it on your Mac.

3. Click Save when you're done and you'll find the PDF exactly where you want it.

Micah Soto

Update 29 November 2023