# Gentoo/Linux Printing Is Very Slow

## SIR_Taco

I really can´t figure this out for the life of me and its more of a question to feed my curiosity.

 When printing in Linux with my Lexmark E210 Laser printer it does not print as quickly as when I use it on a windows machine. There is the same problem at work (there we use Turbo Linux) and again with a Lexmark Laser printer. Now, just as a comparison, when printing in Windows as soon as the end of the sheet has left the feeder the next sheet is getting pulled in, even before the first page has made it all the way through the printer. When printing in Linux the first page gets completely printed (ie sitting in the exit tray) then there is a pause like transfering data for the next page, then it prints the next page. Its a substantial wait time when you think that at home and work I could be printing hundreds of pages and have to wait 10-20 seconds between pages.... that adds up. We had them on LPT and just kind of assumed it was just slow LPT port of old, but it makes no difference going to USB on the printers.

Anyway, I guess my questions are: is there a way to speed up the printing? do I have some sort of setting wrong? is it just the way CUPS is with printing? Is there an alternative (preferably free  :Wink:  )?

Thats my ranting for now.

Thanks,

Phil

(SIR_Taco)

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## NeddySeagoon

SIR_Taco,

Linux has an extra step to print to a Lexmark E210 over Windows. Linux apps all produce PostScript output, then the print spooler of your choice has to use Ghostscript to transform the PostScript page description language into a raster image for the printer. The E210 does not appear to have its own PostScript engine.

Windows goes straight to the Raster image because its printer drivers are attached to the application.

It means that under Linux, any and all printers are PostScript, so you get all the PostScript features that the Windows drivers lack, unfortunately, you pay for that in speed.

If your time is that valuable, get a postscript printer. I like my HP 2550 Ln, which does 20 pages min monochrome.

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## ck42

Neddy,

Thanks for that explanation.  I've had this same 'slow in Linux - Fast under Windows' issue for a LONG time and finally just gave up on it.

It's good to at least know now *why* it's happening!

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## Penulci

Better to answer late than never  :Wink:  My printer used to be slow till I changed from ghostscript to ghostscript-gnu which is a newer version and really improved the speed of printing on my system.

greetings, MichaelLast edited by Penulci on Mon Nov 28, 2005 2:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## ck42

THnx for the tip.  Just emerged -gnu and will give it a try.

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## HomerSimpson

When I emerge ghostscript-gnu, cups no longer will print. I get "No Pages Found!" error. I searched over on the cups list and found several people with this error but nor resolutions.

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## Quincy

But if it is ghostscript or something which will slow down printing why doesn't it use processor time? It shouldn't be simply waiting, because this would be senseless. It shouldn't take that much time to process a file to postscript on a quite new processor...

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## sevo

Windows print drivers will usually send a control language representation of the print contents, in the printers native language. CUPS will create a intermediate bitmap unless the printer is natively postscript capable. Full resolution bitmaps tend to be very much larger than printer control language where text documents are concerned. Throw in that parallel is a slow interface by current standards, that bidirectional communication over parallel is a mess, and that many printers don't have memory to handle full size bitmaps in one go, and you end up with a noticeably slower print process whereever bitmaps are transferred. 

Printing a full page, full printer resolution graphical image from Photoshop or the like in Windows should take approximately the same time as Linux printing, if you aren't CPU bound by the ghostscript rendering -  if it does not, the CUPS print  driver is poorly optimized.

Sevo

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## Quincy

You're right, the speed is like printing a full size image with waiting after every line. No way to speed it up than buying a PS capable printer? (It's an old Deskjet 690C, but working perfectly since years, it's indestructible)

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## aVirulence

Still no answer to this? I keep on wondering this every time I print something  :Smile: 

HP does provide drivers for linux, why isn't it possible to print in the native format?

I hope someone can answer this question for me  :Smile: 

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## dapsaille

Hi!

 i'm really interested about any tips for speeding up my epson R320 who is tooo slow against windows 2000 ..... 

 erff

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## Krieg

I dont have any solution but I want to make part of this sad group of slow printing people.

When I print from Windows the printer starts printing inmediately but when I print from Linux the printer starts printing after 3 to 5 minutes.   So sad.

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## PrakashP

It my not be entirely cups fault, as i noticed printing hi-res photos from most kde apps is dead slow, as it goes through ghostcript. If I do the same from wine it is fast as hell...(and has very god quality). This is what is annoying me since day one I started with Linux. gimp on the other hand is quite fast but produces wrong colored pics for my printer... *sigh*

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