I've been having an issue with certain jobs printing /queueing slowly.

It usually involves jobs that have multiple pdfs as backgrounds.

I set the job up in PP5 and print to a Canon ImageRunner 110. Usually the job will queue up at about 9 data pages at a time so the queue will stay well ahead of what's printing.

This job queues much slower, at only about 2 data pages at a time. So on a printer that does 3,300 duplex an hour I'm printing less than 500.

Here's what I've tried so far:

Setting the form cache higher under document properties.

Changing the caching method (none of these even work for me except for generic)

So far no luck...


So does anyone have any ideas as to how I can boost my print speed?

Matt,

We run three ir110s and know your pain. Last week, we just had to slog through a slow print because of a job with just two JPGs that were only half a page in size.

It sounds as though you've tried all the tricks we know except perhaps changing the scanline direction. It may help. Also, if your images are in color, converting them to grayscale or monochrome might help.

Hi,

If that doesn't work, please "Report an issue" and we will trouble shoot this internally.

Thanks
Cosimo

Hello,

A few things to mention here.

1) The physical size of the image does not always have an effect on speed.

2) Jpgs are compressed images which are uncompressed before being printed. Therefore, the file size is not a good gauge either.

3) Resolution is the key. If you are printing a 2400 dpi image it will be slow.

4) Color images on the ir110 are pointless. If you send color images the extra information still must be processed.

5) The scanline option is a possibility and I would try that as well.

Also note, to the best of my knowledge (I am not a canon tech) but the printer is rated at 110 letter sized images per minute. Duplex is 55 physical pages as is 11x17 paper. If you are duplexing 11x17 sheets you are at 27.5 physical pages per minute.

I tried the scanline direction and that didn't help.

Danny,

With the resolution limited to 600dpi on the Imagerunner anyway, would it really make a difference if the PP5 file had an image in it with a higher res?

Also, under the resource options, on the image resource resolutions, couldn't I just change the res there, or would the resolution on the original graphic have the ultimate effect on my print speed? (I did try to lower it to 300dpi for this job, but it didn't help.. just wondering if anything can be done with this feature)

My image is an all black pdf. Several graphics and some text went into it. When placing a pdf into PP5 it converts it to EPS, right? So now does that EPS have one resolution by itself, or should I be concerned about the individual resolutions of all the original graphics?

Matt,
please note that an EPS can hold images like bitmaps, tiffs and others. So the answer is yes you should be concerned with what is in the PDF and in the EPS.

Also how have you configured the picture object to represent the PDF page (best fit or contant res). This could have an impact also on speed.


Hope this helps.

Hello,

"With the resolution limited to 600dpi on the Imagerunner anyway, would it really make a difference if the PP5 file had an image in it with a higher res?"

Yes it most definitly has a major effect on the speed. (The printer has to process the image, the higher the rez, the more information to process. Also, the printer then has to treat the image to get it to print in 600 dpi). Also note that the settings in planetpress will not modify images that embedded inside and EPS of a PDF. So if your PDF file has a 2400 DPI bitmap in it, PlanetPress will not touch it.

I have seen in the past, a signature tiff that caused the IR to run at 3 ppms. The image was scanned in at full color and 2400 dpi. So a signature of 1 inch by inch (more or less) totally destroyed the print speed.

If you continue to have issues with the PDF, please use the report an issue at the top left and send us the PDF, we can take a look at it. However, if the issue is images embedded within the PDF then the PDF itself might be to be re-generated with more optimal settings.

Thanks, Danny. There's some great info here for those of us plagued by image-related printer slowdown.

One quick follow-up: if the images in a PDF or EPS are a higher resolution than necessary, is there an easy, cost-effective way to lower the resolution outside of PlanetPress? Any suggestions on software/practices to check for this?

Open the PDF and modifying it at that level is not really "possible". I use " because it may be but is not the best way to go about it.

The fact is, the true best way is that the PDF is generated efficiently from the start. Breaking it down and putting it back together again afterwards is not always realistic.