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Document Image Writer: The “Printer” You Never Knew You Had

BY STANLEY ZAROWIN

Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2006. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function.

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I use Word to make up multicolor brochures for my firm, then check that the makeup and colors are just right by using Print Preview . While the test image it produces is OK, it doesn’t give me quite the precision I need to feel comfortable printing several hundred copies of the brochures. Any ideas?

While Print Preview provides an acceptable preview in most cases, Windows has another preview printer that does an even better job. It’s called Microsoft Office Document Image Writer and, unlike Print Preview , it makes an actual image that can be copied and saved as a .tiff (tag image file format) file.

To access the Document Image Writer , click on File, Print (or press Ctrl+P) and under Printer cursor down the options. When you come to the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer (see screenshot), click on it.

Then click on the Advanced tab for options on how and where you want the image to appear (see screenshot below).

Notice Output format lets me set it for a Super Fine (300 DPI) image and Default folder gives me the option of where to save it (I will save it to my Tech Q-A folder ). When done, click on OK . The resulting image will be just as good as if you printed the document to paper and then scanned in the pages. But, of course, it’s faster and easier.