Slow Printing on Linux?

sciguy125 asks: "I switched to Linux a few months ago and the biggest problem that I've had is with my printer. I've got a Canon S520 and Red Hat 9. It prints painfully slow. If I want to print word documents that are more than 5 pages, it's faster to reboot into Windows and print from there. I've scoured the Internet and found that many people are having this problem, but nobody has a satisfactory solution. The most common suggestion is to get a faster computer, thinking that GhostScript is running slow. I'm fairly sure that isn't my problem because the processor is only at about half load when printing. I'm not exactly sure how wide spread this problem is, but I do know that there is at least a decent sized handful of people struggling with it. At first, I was considering dropping Linux because this printing problem is a serious issue with me, but now I just leave a good chunk of my printing until after 2am." Has anyone run into the problem before? What could make a print job spool at unusually slow rates to the printer?

Comments

Possible cause of the problem:

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe your printer is on fire, you should go check it. This is a known problem in some versions of Linux.

Bandwidth perhaps?

[dtfinch]

If your driver is pretty generic, it may just be sending a raw bitmap to the printer, rather than a compressed or vector image. Whereas the windows driver would have been written specifically for that printer taking advantage of all its features. If you have it connected to a parallel port, try USB since that's much faster. Also try printing at a lower DPI. And try different encoding options if they're offered.

Performance options

[Door-opening Fascist]

If you're using a printer hooked up to a parallel port, do you have an interrupt enabled on that port? Also, make sure that you have a DMA channel setup for it. IIRC, you can pass these options in with the parport module.

Possible USB issue?

[Kevin Burtch]

I ran into this some time back... exactly as you describe - painfully slow printing with little CPU impact.

After some searching I found a hint that it might be related to my USB driver.

Try switching from uhci to usb-uhci (or vise-versa) and see if that makes a difference.

If they're built into your kernel, you'll have to configure them as modules both and rebuild it.

My disposable toy-printer (Lexmark Z35) now works great _and_fast_ in Linux.

A Plea to the Linux Developers

[Ed Almos]

OK, I feel your pain but this is just one more symptom of a greater problem. Printing under Linux is a mess and it needs to be fixed. I run a Brother 1250 and in order to get it to work I need to do the following:

Windows
Run the setup program. This installs an applet in the Control Panel along with the driver. The printer is detected on the USB port the first time I turn it on. Sharing is done in about five seconds with a right-click and a couple of selections.

Linux
Install Foomatic, install CUPS, install Ghostscript, fart around for thirty minutes making sure that they can all talk to each other. The total installation size for all of this is well over 50Mb and don't even talk to me about sharing the printer over my network, it isn't going to happen.

Wake up and smell the coffee guys !! We are now well into the 21st Century and Linux is still using a printing system that appears to have been written in the 1960's. This needs fixing with a solution that is small, fast and easy to use.

OK, rant over, feel better now.

Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary

Re:A Plea to the Linux Developers

[walt-sjc]

It's interesting, but must of the printing problems are actually due to the fact that we constantly need to reverse engineer windows drivers. Yet again, pin-headed manufacturers refuse to get a clue.

About 6 years ago, I had my first experience with a WinPrinter. A lexmark color inkjet. Of course it wasn't supported in Linux. It was almost 2 years later before support for it got into Linux. I had nothing but problems even then. Lexmark? Meet trashcan.

Since most of what I print was text, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a new laser printer. I did a fair amount of research and found the Brother 1270N which was a network capable laser that supported postscript! Best decision ever. Postscript printers just work. No dinking around.

About a year ago, I decided it was time to get a color printer for photos. Again, more research. I found that Epson HAD A CLUE and that the printer drivers for Linux were great. I researched which models were currently available and which were supported in Linux, and everything just worked. No screwing around. It's as fast as windows and the output is just as good.

Moral of the story: STOP BUYING CRAP from manufacturers that refuse to cooperate with the Linux community and only support those willing to disclose the information needed to use their products!!!

Back in the days before "winprinters", printer manufacturers ALWAYS disclosed the programming info. In fact, it usually came WITH the printer right in the manual. There is no exuse for keeping it "secret." Next on my list is to replace my HP scanner that doesn't have good Linux drivers or documentation. Looking through the SANE supported list, I don't see many current gen scanners with any support. Any suggestions??? Scanners seem to be even worse than printers!

Printer install walkthrough, screen by screen

[leonbrooks]

1. Menu: K -> System -> Configuration -> Configure Your Computer.
   
2. Type root password.
   
3. Hardware -> Printers. (Printer thingy starts; if CUPS had not been installed, I would have been prompted to insert the first install CD and CUPS plus all dependencies installed from it)
   
4. Add Printer.
   
5. Next.
   
6. (Autodetects Epson Stylus C41) Next.
   
7. Next.
   
8. Yes (I want to set this printer as the default printer), Next.
   
9. (Leave "Standard test page" selected, other options are "Photo test page" and "Do not print any test page") Next.
   
10. Finish. At this point, the printer is hammering out a test page.
    
11. Close printer thingy.
    
12. Close Mandrake Control Center.

Works just as well for networked printers and printers attached to MS-Windows boxes (might need a username/password for an MS-Window box set up to require that), other CUPS printers are 100% automatic unless you tell CUPS not to.