Adding printing capabilities with the PrintJob class

The PrintJob class allows Flash projects to communicate with the printing capabilities of the user’s operating system. It can initiate printing, confirm the user’s printing settings, and send multiple pages of specified content to the user’s printer. However, a Flash SWF file cannot directly control the user’s printer, and the success of a print job from Flash will depend not only on the user’s having (of course) a properly connected printer, but also on the user’s clicking to confirm the Print dialog box as presented by the operating system.

Once a PrintJob instance is created, the process of printing proceeds in three steps, using three methods of the PrintJob class. The start() method opens the operating system’s Print dialog box. At this point, the ActionScript will pause until the user either confirms or cancels the printing. If the user confirms the printing, then the start() method will return true; if not, it will return false.