🚀 go-pugleaf

"GV, in Toronto" wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> I have an HP 4 with 6MB of RAM, and graphics from CorelDraw take an
> inordinately long (5 minutes) time to print.  Also they do not seem to print
> at all when the setting is on 'Vector', so I have set it to 'Raster'.
> 
> Can anyone give me any tips on how to speed up the process?
> 
> Please reply to my E-Mail address (see below) and
> Many thanks in advance for replying,
> 
> Geert, in Toronto
> gv@interlog.com

You've given us no information regarding how complex the graphics you
are printing are, how big they are, how many colors they contain, or
info about the pc you are using. I think these items affect print speed
in addition to the printer memory, and the setting of "vector" or
"raster".

More complex graphics can take Corel longer to process before the
information is even spooled to the printer, in addition for the printer
to take longer to process the information. As CorelDraw does some
processing before sending the information to the printer, I guess the
CPU and RAM on the pc can also affect the time it takes to print.

If you're printing full size or close to full size of a page, I don't
think 6 MB is all that much for 600 dpi printing. Any shades of gray or
other colors there are will require the printer to halftone the colors,
which I guess can take longer to process and maybe require additional
RAM in the printer for processing.

I don't know why, but using the "vector" setting seems to take more
printer processing memory than the "raster" setting. Make sure that the
printer RAM listed in the windows print driver for the printer is
correctly indicated as 6 MB. 

For speeding up the printing time, if you don't need to use 600 dpi
setting, use 300 dpi. There are other settings in the print driver for
font, RET, etc, which might speed things up a little if you change them.
I don't know for sure as I never bother with changing those.

If you have any raster based graphics in color or in gray scale (photos)
in the document and you are printing a lot of copies out of CorelDraw,
you might want to process those graphics into 2-bit black & white images
with a halftone screen prior to adding those pictures into your
CorelDraw page so the printer itself doesn't have to process those
portions to add a halftone screen. This might speed things up. Plus I
find that using Photoshop or other paint program to change the grayscale
to a 2-bit graphic with halftone screen seems to do a better job than
the printer doing it's own halftoning.