[RPi] Printing very slow

Hello

I have installed Gutenprint on my Raspberry Pi running RiscOS RC8 to print to my Canon PIXMA MP530.
I set-p !Printer to use the driver for the MP520.
Butthe printing process is terribly slow. The printer prints in fits and starts and it take ages to tprint a few pages.

Is there sth to configure to speed up the printing process (maybe giving more memory to the printing queue, etc…)

Thank you for your help

François

I’m not sure. I print with RemotePrinterFS via the network. Here the RPi is also noticeably slower than the BeagleBoard. But with the slow upload speed it is not surprising.
Can help to reduce the resolution. On my printer driver was the maximum preset.
Gutenprint uses Scrap and if that is on the card could be the bottleneck here.
You can also play with the memory allocations in tasks (click on the raspberry). The red bar can be moved … Next move before the program call …

Have you used Gutenprint before?
i.e. are you saying it is slower than on x machine?
To get the high quality colour output Gutenprint does a lot of processing using a lot of memory so is much slower than if a standard RISC OS PDF is used. Two? minutes for a black only page is apparently common.
I would expect Gutenprint to be faster on a PI than a RiscPC and on a par with an Iyonix

Whilst Gutenprint is undoubtably the best solution (for your printer) if you only have a RISC OS machine available, you’ll get considerably faster (and potentially better quality) results via our UniPrint system if you have a Windows box anywhere on your network to act as a slave. UniPrint sends a compressed version of the page(s) to the Windows slave machine, which then uses the native Windows drivers, which are usually pretty optimal in terms of both speed and quality.

http://www.rcomp.co.uk/rci/uniprint

@Chris
Yes, I have tried Gutenprint much more successfully on my OpenPandora (Coortex A8 1Ghz). However, I did not use the same document, so I will make a new test tonight.

@Andrew… Looks very interesting, but I have never setup a network before. I sould probably try :)

Regards

Hello

I confirm that printing from the OpenPandora is much faster than from RPi. Printing from the OpenPandora is not stuning fast however, but it is ok, at least for small document.

Thanks

François

You can try (compare) “print to file” and place the file to the RAMDisc. Then change the connection (or create a second printer) to your USB and drag / drop the file to the wired printer. Maybe you see differences in the computer or transfer speed.

OpenPandora is much faster than from RPi.

Can you quantify ‘Much’?
The 1GHz Pandora should be 50 – 100% faster, your ‘terribly slow’ suggests significantly more difference in speed to me!

Indeed, the difference is major: on the rpi, printing is just not conceivable… on the openpandora, it is, at least for small documents.

The impression is that, when it comes to printing, the openpandora is much more faster!

Thanks

My Beagleboard C4 (not xM) works with 600MHz and the printing speed is not so slow (feel about 10% slower than with my xM or Pandora).
I will try any things later this day. Do you print via USB and use the NutPi Gutenprint?

Hello Raik

Yes, I am using the NutPi Gutenprint and print via USB.

Regards

Hello François,

Normally I print in the network via RemotePrinterFS. Now you have the special cases … Pandora and Rpi;-)
I have tested with my GHz Pandora and with my Rpi Model A! Both print fine with my Lindy adapter ;-) But the RPi upload is very slow. Now I try USB printing.
I save a Techwriter example to PDF and then printed with 360dpi via Gutenprint. Pandora took about 35s for the “Calculation” and 30s again for the transfer / print. The Rpi about 50 seconds for the “Calculation” and also about 30 seconds for the transfer / print.
I use the comparable class 10 SD cards and 5.21 ROM for both devices. Sorry I not use the NutPi Gutenprint. Maybe tomorrow morning I have a little time.

Best

Edit: The same results with the NutPi Gutenprint on Pi.
If my Printer is in “standby” the transfer takes round about one minute longer.
If I use 720DPI, the “Calculation” takes 70s on my Pandora and 3 Minutes with the RPi.