How Can I Print Faster ?

July 2008

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How Can I Print Faster ?

CADCAM Software for All Woven Textiles

Setup Tips
Poor print performance can be a frustration when you have to spend what seems like hours waiting for each printout. There are a few things you can do to speed up the computer generally and, if you have a partitioned hard disk with a relatively small C-drive then check this tip.

Hardware Tips
To speed up the printer you could try changing from a parallel port connection to a USB port connection. USB port speeds are significantly faster than parallel printer port speeds allowing data to be transferred between computer and printer faster. You can buy parallel-to-USB port convertert cables which will allow your parallel port printer to connected to a USB port or you will find that most new printers come with a USB connector on them.

Another connection method which can improve printer data transfer is to connect the printer directly to your network (i.e. not to a computer on the network). This requires a network print server which has network connections and printer connections. Some printers are available with built-in print servers allowing the printer to connect directly to a network cable.

Software Tips
Other than that the problem may lie in the size of the print files being generated - especially with today's current crop of printers capable of 2880 dots per inch. To give the best printer detail and to avoid repeating patterns in a print, ScotWeave creates print images at actual size with no scaling applied. You can use the simple formula below to calculate the print file size -

File size (bytes) = print width (inches) x dots per inch x print height (inches) x dots per inch

For example, for an A4 (approx. 11 x 7 inch) print at a resolution of 1440 dots per inch the file size is

11 x 1440 x 7 x 1440 = 159,667,200 bytes (159 MBytes)

This is an enormous amount of data to create and to work with and printing a file of this size will tax even a powerful computer. If you print the same file at 2880 dots per inch then the file size will be in excess of 630 Mbytes !

To speed up the process the first step is to check if the printer dots per inch can be reduced. For most fabric printouts the photorealsitic print quality offered by resolutions above 720 dots per inch are not necessary so, can you reduce the printer resolution ? Check the Properties of the Windows printer driver and look for options which control quality and speed to see if the printer resolution can be brought down. You may not notice the difference in print quality but you might reduce the print speed by half or more. Experiment with different "dots per inch" settings to see which gives the best print speed and quality combination.

If this doesn't help then there is an Print Scale option available to ScotWeave which might help.

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