TRYING TO PRINT

Why would you want to print to file? There are save to pdf and eps available.

Is this windows' native print dialog what you get? Just like in any other program?

HELLO,
 I JUST WANT TO GET THE DRAWING OFF MY LAPTOP INTO CLIENTS PC. I DOWNLOADED THE DRIVER FOR THE HP PRINTER BUT TONIGHT I TRIED TO PRINT THE SVG OF THE THE DRAWING AND SAW THAT IT WAS 115MB AND WHEN IT FINALLY DID PRINT IT WAS A BLACK SQUARE. I DID NOT HAVE TIME IN THEIR OFFICE TO TRY AS A PDF.OR EPS. IN THE MORNING.
 THE WINDOW IS THE NATIVE PRINT DIALOG WITH THE RENDERING TAB BEHIND IT.
MY DRAWING HAS A JPG PHOTO-A FILLED SQUARE- AND LUCIDA SANS FONT WHICH IS I BELIEVE AN ADOBE FONT.
 IS IT NORMAL TO HAVE SUCH A DIFFICULT TIME PRINTING?

DO I HAVE TO DOWNLOAD CAIRO TO MAKE THESE WORK?

This seems to be usual.
But really, try pdf and if this does not work try development version to save to pdf. With pdf you are always secure.

DO I NEED TO DOWNLOAD THE CAIRO PROGRAM TO CONVERT SVG TO .PDF ?

No, you just "Save a copy" to PDF.

I made the pdf and transfered the 1mb file to my usb drive but when I opened it on the other PC it was blank. Damn. What the hell?

jjaran: The development version of Inkscape has a much improved PDF exporter. You should try a recent development build.
I guess you're running inkscape under MS Windows. If that's correct try this build:
http://inkscape.modevia.com/win32/Inkscape20209-0811152259.7z
Just unzip the file (using 7zip) and run the executable. You don't have to install it.

Good luck! :-)

Oh, btw. Keep in mind that you're using a pre-1.0 software, so don't expect it will work flawlessly.
It's normal to have some bugs in software that is under development. Suffering this kind of bugs and being able to report them and contribute to the improvement of the software is part of the deal when using free software.
You get it for free, you can contribute (programming, reporting bugs or documenting features) and, ocassionally, you have to deal with some problems.

This goes for your question about if it's normal to have these kind of problems and the WTH part. ;-)

OK- I downloaded that zip file- extracted it with 7zip-saved it to documments and when I tried to open it would not open-kept going back to box asking if I want to run or save. What now?

Did you extract all the contents in a single folder and tried to run inkscape.exe?
Make sure that all the files in the 7zip file are extracted in the same location, respecting the directory structure of the zipped file contents.
It should work.
(I don't have Windows, so maybe I'm missing something, but as far as I can remember, it was that way.)

ok- I actually got the new .pdf to show on the other PC. using development ver.But it would not print!? This may be the printer.Client won't be here till morn.
 When pdf print box came up in my pc I checked only -print drawing only--after a previous failed attempt with other checked things. What is the significance to me of the pdf version 1.4 ?

That's what is being used. I did finally print it on another PC.
 Thanks for all the help.