I have a Pentium 4, 3.0 GHz pc w/ 2 GB RAM, Windows XP Pro connected to a Windows Server 2003 which has a USB, shared HP Color LaserJet 3800 printer. When I click 'Print a Test Page', the computer sends the page to the spooler and off to the server and it prints in seconds. The main use of the pc is to process/print color images to 8.5" X 11" regular paper. Each page will generate a print file of approximately 32 Mb and it takes the computer about 2 minutes to process the data and send to the server. With the amount of printing required per day, the 2 minutes is too long. What can I do to speed up printing? Temporarily disabling the internet security software does not help. Do I need a faster computer? Are there any printer settings that can be changed? Do I need a different printer?
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I don't think RAM is the issue unless you are swapping during print processing. If you are using a memory heavy program it may be.
Verify the USB port is 2.0 and use the PostScript driver. If you go under Printer=>Properties=>Advance
32MB sounds like quite a large print file. What kind of documents are these?
I agree with jake that using the PostScript driver may speed it up. PS usually produces smaller print files if the document contains images. It's available from:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/
Another thing about your file size.
32MB may mean that you are printing images at a resolution that is too high. A 1200dpi image will produce a print file that is 16 times larger than a 300dpi image.
Many people think that, if their printer is 1200dpi, images have to be that resolution too. That is incorrect. Optimum print quality is at an image resolution of 200-300dpi *as printed*. Anything over 300dpi is wasted; images printed at less than 150dpi will show pixellation. As Letter paper is 8.5" x 11", full-page images should be about 1700 x 2200 pixels. Smaller size images should be proportionally smaller.
Yes, it is overkill to print over 300 dpi on 8.5"X11". I print to plotter and often see file sizes of 32MB, but these are larger scale. Also the file size you see displayed in the printer dialog, if you are using the PCL driver, is the rip file size, that is a raw interpreted printer file generated by your PCL driver. PS on the other hand is typically similar to the size of the original file. It's not uncommon tosend a 3MB jpg and your printer dialog shows a file size of 32MB with the PCL driver.
I found this link you my find useful as well.
http://www.experts-exchang
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by: jkratzerPosted on 2009-08-26 at 12:14:31ID: 25191152
Increase the RAM to max (4gb).
Also set your pagefile to a very large about 6-8gb.