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Printing from app is slow
Hello,
Our company has analysis software that generates charts that are very large in size, around 400 to 600 MB. These print very slow on our computers (which are Pentium II 256MB RAM), taking almost 5 to 10 minutes. Is there a way to print faster? At first the computers were set to print directly to the printer, but we changed it so that the printer is added from our print server. This helped a little bit (I guess because some of the spooling work was moved from the local comptuer to the server), but still takes a few minutes to print. Is there a way to reduce the spooling? I know there is an option to send data RAW, but will this overload the printer (will the printer need more RAM if no spooling is done?). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Our company has analysis software that generates charts that are very large in size, around 400 to 600 MB. These print very slow on our computers (which are Pentium II 256MB RAM), taking almost 5 to 10 minutes. Is there a way to print faster? At first the computers were set to print directly to the printer, but we changed it so that the printer is added from our print server. This helped a little bit (I guess because some of the spooling work was moved from the local comptuer to the server), but still takes a few minutes to print. Is there a way to reduce the spooling? I know there is an option to send data RAW, but will this overload the printer (will the printer need more RAM if no spooling is done?). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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How large is the spool file? If the spool size is small then you need more processing power to create it, as the processor has to reduce your 500MB file to printer output. What kind of files are the "charts" (Excel, JPEG, CorelDRAW, etc)? What printer are you using and how is it connected (parallel, usb, network)?
ASKER
The document shows up in the print queue at about 500MB. And you can see it processing it because it'll change from 45/500 to 150/500 until in reaches 100%. And how do you change the spool size? Or what determines spool size? These are actually plots generated by DNA analysis software that we use. They show various information about a persons DNA. The program is called Genemapper. The printer is a HP Color Laserjet 3500 and it is networked and we add the printers to the computers through the print server.
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Have you decided to live with the problem, or did you fix it somehow? If the latter, what fix or fixes made a difference?
Have you decided to live with the problem, or did you fix it somehow? If the latter, what fix or fixes made a difference?
ASKER
hdhondt,
There was no way to change the resolution from the printer properties, so that remained the same. With 1GB RAM, the printing was significantly faster. Also, spooling before printing was a lot faster than sending directly to the printer. And, of course, the faster processor made a good amount of difference too. With these three things, we got it down from around 5 minutes for each print job to less than half a minute.
Hope this helps. Thanks.
There was no way to change the resolution from the printer properties, so that remained the same. With 1GB RAM, the printing was significantly faster. Also, spooling before printing was a lot faster than sending directly to the printer. And, of course, the faster processor made a good amount of difference too. With these three things, we got it down from around 5 minutes for each print job to less than half a minute.
Hope this helps. Thanks.
ASKER