Re: Print speed using Report Builder

From: a (blwatters_at_shaw.ca)
Date: 08/02/04 

Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 08:21:57 -0700

Robert,

> It now takes over 2 hours to print less than 3000 pages using an HP 4300
> duplex printer. Note: to avoid confusion, this means less than 1500 sheets
> of paper.
>
> The printer is always 'waiting' for pages to be sent. We us the same
printer
> to print out mont end customer statements and it takes under an hour to
> print 2000 individual pages.
>

You are comparing apples and oranges. You have two different reports
(and one in duplex) and you expect the printer to output double-sided
printing at the same rate as single sided? This isn't going to happen.

The printer is never "waiting" for pages to be sent. At even at the maximum
45ppm of your printer, that is still only one second per page. I'm sure RB
can
produce more output a lot faster than than. "Waiting" likely means it is
waiting
for the computer to send a page of data across the port, or the print driver
just wants to display something less cryptic than what is is actually doing.

First, try sending the first report to a PDF, text file or something.
Notice that it will likely finish in a few minutes at most. This is far
shorter than 2 hours, so.... RB could never be the bottle neck?

Second, try printing the report in non-duplex. Time it. Chances are
duplex alone doubles the print time -- since the printer likely maxes
out it's memory buffer and has to have the driver re-send portions
of the pages again.

Third, direct the printer to print to a file. Then print the file. I doubt
it would print any faster.

Forth, remove any graphics, images, lines, etc. Try printing again.

> Bottom line is that Report Builder cannot drive the printer to its maximum
> output.

The report designer will have little effect on print speeds -- if any.
Almost
any designer can spit out 3000 pages to a printer file, PDF, or text file
in a minute or so. This is less than 1/100 the time your printer takes to
print the page. Unless your printer is capable of doing something like
2000-3000 pages per minute, RB certainly isn't the bottle neck.

Two hours is 120 minutes. At 25ppm your maximum output of the
printer is only approximately 3000 pages (or 1500 duplex pages).
What's the problem? The 45ppm rating of the 4300 is a best-case
on test output using rather unrealistic conditions -- likely no graphics,
simple optimized fonts, limited coverage, etc. Getting more than half that
speed in real world conditions (and printing duplex) is hardly bad.

If you check the HP FAQs I'm sure you'll find something that
says that printing duplex must take proportionally longer than
non-duplex. Just a guess, but if it only takes an extra half second
to flip a page vs. feeding another one normally, that is 25 minutes
on a 3000 page job. At an extra a second, that is nearly an hour.

Thanks,

Brett

>
> Is there a faster software available?
>
> Thank you.
>
> A.Robert Thompson
> Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
>
>