cups, pdf & delays

[Helge Blischke]

Pete Gajria wrote:
> 
> im trying to send a whole bunch of pdf files to the printer via lp
> the files print fine (all 63 of them)
> the printer is a hp laserjet 2200dn - networked printer (for testing)
> 
> the problem is after every file it seems the printer is being reset beacuse
> i can hear the
> printer ramping up again. as a result the print speed is cut down to 2 pages
> per min
> printing the same batch from windows doesnt have this problem & the pages
> print continously
> without pause
> 
> is there any workaround for this printer pause ?
> im trying to get cups setup for large batch print jobs every night & this
> delay would be unacceptable
> for a large run (1000's of files)
> ideally i'd be happy with 10-15 pages per min.

It depends on the complexity of the PDF files. They are converted to
PostScript
by the pdftops filter (which is based on xpdf). To explore which is the
time consuming
component, run all the components manually and measure the resource
consumption, e.g.

time /usr/lib/cups/filter/pdftops 4711 anon test 1 "" sample.pdf >
sample.ps
time /usr/lib/cups/filter/pstops 4711 anon test 1 "" sample.ps >
sample.final

Oh, first set the following environment vatiables (the mentioned filters
depend on them):
TMPDIR		a directory for temp files
DEVICE_URI	the complete device uir of your printer (as in printers.conf)
PPD		the path to your ptinter's PPD as configured for CUPS, usually
		/etc/cups/ppd/printername.ppd

The above commands will then report how much user, system, and elapsed
time the filters
consume.

Helge

-- 
H.Blischke at srz-berlin.de
H.Blischke at srz-berlin.com
H.Blischke at acm.org