Recently i have had some users complain about slow printing from adobe reader.
I have upgraded the users to 8.1 but that didn't resolve it. They are printing over our network. Nothing has changed regarding printing recently and its only some users from 1 location. I have tried printing as image in adobe, as well as spooling on and off, and enhanced more on and off, with no success. i cant find any reason for it. Also tried a PS driver but that seemed to kill printing all together.
Printing works fine from all other apps but adobe.
everything i can find on this basically says adobe sucks and you need to live with it... i guess im just looking for other options if anyone has them.
Print server is Win2k3
printer is Xerox

Define "slow".

Do you mean the physical speed of the printing process?

or

Do you mean how long it takes for the printing request to travel from workstation to printer?

What kind of printer is it? Phaser 8500? Or around that series? Phaser series at all? I can tell you exactly how to fix it.

Log into Centerware IS (type the printer's IP address in your web browser). Go to properties -> TCP/IP under protocols on the left hand menu, TCP/IP, turn off WINS, SLP. Apply the changes, see if printing is faster.

When printing PDFs i recommend using the PCL driver since it sends the file as an image instead of the postscript driver sending it as chunks.

If it's an 8500/8550 there is the firmware update which can be applied (available from Xerox.com in the drivers and downloads section for that model).

let me know what printer it is. And yea, I agree with Singh400, slow spooling or slow physically printing?

-Scott

You pretty much answered your own question there. Adobe has this really bad habit of palpitating every time they get near a new piece of gadget code ... that they just have to adopt it and then foister it on (us) the public.

Post Script is only for doing Vector fonts & etc. You don't need it.

Most likely you (as is the habit) grabbed the latest (PLC6) driver for the machine, and while normally this is a good idea PCL6 is the exception to the rule. PCL6 has a ton of pointless information going to the printer that has nothing to do with the job and causes tons of errors on every platform on the market ... most commonly while printing from Adobe because they don't seem to understand the "Bloat is bad" concept.

Hint: The company I work for is an HP Authorizes Service Provider, and I get this call about twice a week. We also handle Xerox, and the PCL6 + Adobe combo should be avoided like the plague.

Printers only "Print" at one speed, they are not "Smart" enough to go fast or slow. The only places slowness can be exhibited are:

Windows Spooler: Icon stays displayed in System Tray and data (received) light on printer takes a while to flash.

Wire time: Same as above but the switch is light up like a Christmas tree.

Printer Spooler: Image formation issue - Large job or complex graphics causes the printer to lag between pages of a multi page job, or while printing multiple copies of a single page job. This can also be caused by excessive fragmentation on the printers Hard Drive and yes (on printer) RAM Drives count.


Note: turning off spooling in the driver (bad idea) will only allow (cause) the print job to hang/freeze/lockup the application while the printer sits there diddling itself.

Its a Xerox WorkCenter M45.
And yes i am using a PCL6 driver, i will try the version 5 driver and see if that helps.
And im sure its when it spools it slows down as when a user prints a PDF file that is about 100kb it spools to about 3 or 4MB. Travel in the network may affect it as well since they are printing in Edmonton and our print server is located in Calgary, but we do have a good connection so it shouldn't be that bad.

Ill try the driver and keep you posted.

Thanks

Yeah that's probably the reason with the remote server. If the m24 is still covered under warranty or a service agreement, cal 1-800-822-2979, give them the serial number and see what they can do. They might have to ask 2nd level support (if there is any on that machine). I deal more with the Phaser machines myself.

I agree with the PCL6 suggestion as well. What you can try and do is when you print, hit advanced, then select "print as image" and see if thats any quicker.

tried print as image, no go.
tried PCL5 no go.

still same thing though the images are spooling to stupid sizes and i had one spool to 44mb the other day. im still at a loss but have not given up, i will probably be calling xerox this week.