[NBLUG/talk] Printing PDF files - slow...

Dave Sisley dsisley at sonic.net
Mon Apr 21 16:00:49 PDT 2008


Hey, folks:

I'm feeling clueless: 

I've run into a problem at work where there's a need to print PDFs, and 
I never noticed how slow that can be for certain files.  I've tried a 
few different applications, and settled on kpdf - mostly because it is 
probably installed on most of the desktops where this is an issue, and 
while Evince has choked on the PDFs produced by an outside source, kpdf 
opens without a problem.

I'm sure a big part of this is the size of the file.  A small test file 
printed fairly quickly, but I tried 2 larger files and they took forever 
- I'm wondering if something can be done to speed up the process.

Test file #1 was a 40-page document, 418.5 kb and took a half hour to 
print.  A few pages would print at a time, then a long pause, then more 
pages, etc.
Test file #2 was a 1-page document, 1.5 mb in size (graphics intensive) 
that took about 10-15 minutes to print.

The printer is an HP 1320 connected to the network.  Is it a lack of 
memory in the printer?  Looking at the config page for the printer, it 
says it has 16mb total memory, with 5.58 available.

Is there something that can be done either to the printer or the PDF 
that would help?

-- 
Dave Sisley
dsisley at sonic.net
roth-sisley.net




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