OT(?) FC2 Very slow printing to HP DeskJet 870Cse

[Les Mikesell]

On Tue, 2006-01-17 at 23:56, Mike McCarty wrote:
> >>
> >>Anyway, have installed an HP DeskJet 870Cse, and it prints
> >>unbearably slowly, like 30 minutes per page.
> >>
> > 
> > 
> > If you have the option of testing the printer on another system maybe you
> > can determine if it's the operating or the printer itself that needs fixing.
> 
> I was able to do something even better. I was able to take a
> web page which took 30 minutes per page to print, and subset
> it to one which prints quite quickly. So I know that it is
> not just the printer, nor is it the CPU getting bottled up,
> but something with the configuration and how it handles things.
> 
> But I still don't know what the problem is.

The usual scenario is that the linux app generates postscript,
substituting fonts as needed, then for printers that don't
accept postscript, it is fed through ghostscript to generate
an appropriate bitimage and commands for your printer model,
which is then dribbled out the printer port.  It sounds like
you might be having trouble with several of these steps.  One
potential problem is that your parallel port isn't generating
an interrupt and runs in a really slow polled mode but it has
been so long since I've seen that that I've forgotten the
solution.  The way to avoid the whole mess is to use printers
that accept postscript on a network connection.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com