How is your printing speed in OSX?

majormatt

I dont know about anyone else, but my Samsung takes forever. I print text and it takes 4-6 minutes, I print graphics and it can take 15 minutes! There is some major flaw in the driver for sure. While in OS9, as soon as I click print text prints out literally 5 seconds later, graphics take 20 seconds. I emailed Samsung but they never reply, how is Epsons, HPs, etc speed in X?

code master

My Epson C62 only takes about 20 sec on my G4 400, and most of that is to boot the print manager. I feel your pain though because I used to have a LaserWriter 4/600 and when I'd print from pagemaker, it'd take up to an hour to print a page depending on fonts and graphics. It really hurts to have to wait like that.

gsxrboy

To a networked HP5000GN, no probs nice and zippy.. (10.3)

fluffy

My HP (2100TN) used to take forever to start printing under pre-10.3 releases of X. Sometimes it just wouldn't start and I'd be left with the print center in the dock until I killed it. So far under 10.3 printing has been reliable and immediate.

majormatt

Egads, we use to have a 6116 (now a $56 G3/266) connected to a Laserwriter 4/600 and some docs did literally take an hour to print out, too.

rok

something strange i noticed: under jaguar, printing from preview (even a small PDF) takes FOR-F'N-EVER to my laserwriter 630. i know i don't have a lot RAM in the machine, but printing directly from even word is lightyears faster. i am hoping, once i get around to upgrading to panther (y'know, once i have a.) money and b.) compatibility with my major apps -- suitcase 11 blows right now), that the problem will correct itself.

ebby

I just upgraded to 10.3 and printing also took forever. That is until I plugged the printer in, then it was almost instant.

karl kuehn

One note for those of you who are seeing a slowdown in printing. It could well be that you are printing out much higher resolution in MacOS X then you were from 9. This will up print times considerably, especially on systems that have low memory.



I have found that the default on MacOS X is to print at a higher DPI (since time has marched on...).

altivec_2.0

C80 on a iMac 600Mhz G3 10.3. Spools faster, but takes same amount of time to travel over slow usb.

majormatt

I think you're right, Karl. I noticed before my Illustrator documents use to print out fairly pixelated, now with the new drivers they print out ultra-smooth as if it is emulating postscript for this non PS printer...hmm...perhaps that is the slow down?

karl kuehn

MacOS X's printing system has a built in RIP, that is made from the combination of CUPS, Gimp-Print, and GhostScript (the last providing most of the RIP functionality). All of these are open-source projects, and apple has licensed CUPS for commercial use. As a basic RIP this combination can rival many of the $2000-3000 hardware RIPS (especially when you consider how much faster newer computers are than older RIPs... and since you have already invested in the computer hardware...).



In fact this combination is what allows for the interesting filters that you can apply in MacOS 10.3, an area which could become a very interesting point for third party development.

vandewaals

I have a Canon i320 (got it cheap at Microcenter) and it prints pretty quick. And nice too! I was impressed. And the driver came with 10.3 (only installed the Canon drivers).