FAQ: Printing

When I print certain sketches, Sketchpad prints out many, many sheets of paper. Why is this, and how do I prevent it?

If your sketch contains certain types of objects, Sketchpad may require many sheets of paper to print them at "full size." Keep in mind that objects such as function plots and loci may be mathematically infinite in size. While Sketchpad does not print out an infinite number of pages, these objects will require many pages to print at the size in which they appear in Sketchpad.

Before printing, it's a good idea to check what your printout will look like by using File | Print Preview. If the preview shows more pages than you wish to print, you can reduce the number of pages by the following several techniques:

• Choose Scale To Fit Page in Print Preview before printing. This guarantees that only one page will be printed, with all of your geometry scaled to fit that page.
• Uncheck Print All Large Objects in Print Preview. When this option is checked, function plots and loci print in their entirety (whether scaled to a single page or not). When this option is not checked, your scaled or unscaled printout will only contain the portions of these objects visible in the current window, or visible near other, smaller objects in your printout.
• On Mac OS, you can also choose a Custom Page Scale in Print Preview. This option allows you to choose the area of your entire document that you wish to print, and then scales that area to take up exactly one printed page.
• Finally, if Print Preview shows that your entire sketch will print on multiple pages, you can choose (in the Print dialog box) a subset of those pages to actually print.