Posted by EP_VA on 1/30/05 2:17pm
Msg #18800

Printing E-docs

I have an HP 1300, which is supposed to print approximately 20 ppm. I recently had an e-docs assignment printing approximately 123 pages (all of legal size paper). It took about ten minutes for the "spooling" to complete and then the actual printing took about an hour. The file was Adobe format. Is there I can do to correct this? TIA for your responses.

Reply by Stacy/CA on 1/30/05 3:06pm
Msg #18802

I don't know if all computers are the same since I am far from a computer genius, but I have set my computer to send documents straight to the printer and not to spool them. I run Windows XP and if you open the 'Printers and Faxes' files, right click the printer, select 'properties' and click on the advance tab you can change the options. I have this set with my HP1320 so I think it might be the same. My documents finish printing a lot quicker than if they are spooled first.

Hope this helps

Reply by EP_VA on 1/30/05 4:26pm
Msg #18804

I took your suggestion and the print speed was somewhat faster, but it still seems slow to me. I got the first 88 pages in about half hour, which is faster than with "spooling" turned on. By the way, does anyone know what "spooling" means in computer language?

TIA

Reply by thnotary_NY on 1/30/05 4:37pm
Msg #18805

I THINK it has something to do with it being "cached" or loaded into memory(printer) first. But then what do I know.?

Reply by Vicki/MD on 1/30/05 5:13pm
Msg #18806

I have an HP1440. Sometimes what I do is print only 10-15 pages at a time, and while the first 10-15 are printing, I send the next batch of 10-15 to the printer about half way through. That way you keep the printer going, but you don't overload your memery. This little trick seems to make things a bit quicker for me, although it's a pain to sit in front of the computer...

Reply by EP_VA on 1/30/05 6:24pm
Msg #18807

Thanks for all the replies. I thought there might be a better way to get the e-docs printed faster, considering there needs to be two copies made.

Thanks again.

Reply by Roxy on 1/30/05 6:45pm
Msg #18808

I had the same problem. I called Hp and we changed the driver and now my printer prints perfect.

Reply by EP_VA on 1/30/05 6:51pm
Msg #18809

Thanks. I'll try calling HP.

Reply by PAW_Fl on 1/30/05 6:55pm
Msg #18811

Changed the driver from what to what?

Reply by PAW_Fl on 1/30/05 6:53pm
Msg #18810

The major and usual problem with some PDF files taking a very large amount of time to print is because the documents are scanned as images and not text. There are two clues to this being the case: (1) the PDF is rather large, over 2MB in size is not uncommon; and (2) if you try to search for a word, like "mortgage" or the borrowers last name, it won't find it.

The only way to increase overall printing speed in the case of images, it to lower the "dpi" setting to the lowest possible value (300 or 600). Some people have claimed that printing with the PS (Post Script) driver and setting the "Print as Image" check box, has helped speed things up.

The speed at which an image can be rendered is predicated on two memory issues: (1) the amount of memory in your PC and (2) the amount of memory in the printer. The more memory, the better.

The final factor in rendering images, is the processor speed of the PC. A 733Mhz PC will render the images a lot slower than a 2.8Ghz processor.

One last item, though not too much of a concern with images, is the connection speed between the PC and the printer. A serial connected printer will receive the data the slowest. A parallel connect is much faster and a USB 2.0 connection is faster yet. Networked printers will be dependent on the speed of the network connections and network management overhead.

Reply by Joan-OH on 1/31/05 8:31am
Msg #18832

I have found using the PS driver really works depending on which printer you have. Transcontinentals are the slowest pdfs I have ever run into. On my HP 3330, changing it to the PS driver makes no difference whatsoever. But on my HP 4200, changing to the PS driver makes them fly off the machine.

Test it both way on your printer. I've had my 4200 for 6 months and never tried it until a couple of weeks ago based on my results with the 3330. I was quite pleasently surprised....and kicking myself for not trying it sooner!

Joan-OH

Reply by EP_VA on 1/31/05 10:25am
Msg #18837

The documents were, in fact, from Transcontinental. I am hoping for some way to speed up my print process. I just think that an hour or so to print documents is way too long, especially considering that the specs on the printer state that it prints 20 ppm. Not so sure of where to start. I have a cable internet connection, and I was led to believe that downloading of documents would be much faster -- much to my dismay. I will call HP to find out if there is a better way.

Thanks again for all your replies.

Reply by Terri - CA on 1/31/05 10:50am
Msg #18844

Here's what I have done with my HP 1200 (predecessor to the 13XX series); Open the print dialog box, click on properties (PCL6 Printer selected), then in the lower right hand side of the window, click the custom radial button, then click details. A new window opens, in the upper right hand side of the window, under "Resolution" change the resolution to the lowest dpi setting you can (use the "drop down menu arrow"). For the PCL6 printer selection it's 600. Then click ok, etc.

I found that it prints LOTS faster almost printer speed. What I've actually done it is make that my default setting by going into Printer and Faxes etc. The above instructions, just change it for the duration that the application is open.

Good luck.

Reply by PAW_Fl on 1/31/05 11:08am
Msg #18849

The specs are correct in that the printer will print at 20 ppm. However, the rendering of the page is what takes it so long. The image must be rendered before it can be printed.

As for downloading, what leads you to think that your download speed is too slow? Have you tested it? Give it a shot and see where your connection is in comparison with others.

http://speedtest.dslreports.com

Reply by Lee/AR on 1/31/05 10:44am
Msg #18841

Haven't read all replies... gotta run... but PDF can be slow but it helps to set your printer to as low a DPI as you can...usually found under 'properties' on the print screen.

Reply by Ernest Adams on 1/31/05 11:16am
Msg #18851

Download speed versus print speed

The two have virtually nothing to do with each other, except that everything takes longer for bigger docs. Once the doc has been downloaded, then its your PC's processor speed, amount of RAM (memory), free disk space, printer memory, and innate printer speed that determine how fast pages will be hitting the out tray.

Reply by Terri - CA on 1/31/05 1:08pm
Msg #18870

Re: Download speed versus print speed

Actually the print speed is determined by the size of the document and the TYPE of document as well as the amount of memory that the PRINTER has. If it's strictly a text file, your printer should print at or almost at rated print speed. However, if the document is a graphics file, such as TIF, as some company's use when scanning documents into a PDF file, it can take a long time for the printer processor to process the huge amount of information so that it looks right on the page. The printer doesn't know that the "graphics" is really text because of the configuration used/set when the document was scanned.

I know that when I scan a document I have the choice of selecting whether the document or item to be scanned is a Text Document (small file) or Photograph/Graphic (large file).

Justs food for thought

Terri
Lancaster, CA

Reply by EP_VA on 1/31/05 2:53pm
Msg #18888

Re: Download speed versus print speed

Thanks for your reply.

Reply by ks.....NY on 2/1/05 9:29am
Msg #19003

I also have an HP 1300 and printing some PDF docs was taking a long time....i happened to read on another board last week a possible solution. If you are using Adobe 6.0, try installing Adobe 5.0 on your computer. When the edocs come in, you can save them to a file. Then using Adobe 5.0, open your file. I tried this yesterday and it really seemed a lot quicker.