Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!intercon!amanda@mermaid.intercon.com
From: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Postscript Printer Speed less than ratings
Message-ID: <1613@intercon.com>
Date: 8 Dec 89 19:22:37 GMT
References: <372@timer1.UUCP>
Sender: news@intercon.com
Reply-To: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Lines: 33

In article <372@timer1.UUCP>, fritz@timer1.UUCP (fritz) writes:
> I do not think that the Printer is doing all that much "processing" since
> it is just moving around.  The printer is rated at 6-8 Pages Per minute.
> I would expect the bottleneck to be in the paper feed and print phase.
> I would also expect the printer to do some processing while it is printing
> so that 10 charts sequentially would take less time that 10*1_chart.

The printer is probably spending most of its time doing the following
things:

 - parsing the input data stream
 - stroking the paths
 - printing the pages

Most PostScript printers only have enough memory to hold a single page image,
so they can't start imaging one page until the previous one has been printed.

> How can I speed this thing up?  More memory?  Why?  Better Programming?  How?

Unless you try a more expensive printer, Better Programming is about the
only way.

> Is there something that can precede the chart to take better advantage of
> the machine?

You might want to try stroking each line segment by itself, since that will
involve less calculation than stroking a complex path.  Also, you could encode
your input somehow so that it would take less time to go across the serial
line...

Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation
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