[cups.general] 500kb Files Take Forever to Print

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On Apr 4 06:39 William Bechtold wrote (excerpt):
>>>> ... when I try to print a file of, say, 500 KB or so, it
>>>> takes 20-30 minutes to print, especially web pages
>>>> with graphics...
>>> ... I'm using the Postscript driver
....
>> Does the Laserjet 2420DN print faster when you use a PCL driver?
....
> Johannes: That answer seems so obvious now that I'm embarrassed.

Don't worry - "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow", see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus%27_Law

> I edited the printer installation and selected the pcl3 driver,
> and it now prints very quickly. I'd chosen the postscript driver
> simply because that's what CUPS recommended at install,
> but I'll play with this a bit. CUPS makes it easy.

Using a PostScript printer in its native PostScript mode
is the recommended way because in PostScript mode the
printout quality is usually best.

For a really powerful PostScript printer using it in its native
PostScript mode is always best because the printout quality
is best and it saves the workstation or print server machine
from the CPU and memory consuming rendering.

For a not really powerful PostScript printer it is in particular
cases better to let the workstation or print server machine
do the CPU and memory consuming rendering.

For a not really powerful PostScript printer it is usually
best to have two print queues, one which uses the printer
in PostScript mode for best printout quality and additionally
one which lets the workstation or print server machine do the
rendering (e.g. via PCL or whatever lower-level printer language).

For a color PostScript+PCL printer (regardless how powerful)
an additional print queue which uses a monochrome PCL driver
(e.g. the generic PCL5e driver "ljet4" in Ghostscript)
is probably the best way to enforce fast monochrome-only printing.

See "Printer drivers: Make the printer print" at
http://en.opensuse.org/Concepts_printing


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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