Printing guide
Network Printing Slow in the Office: Diagnosing Delays Between Click and Page
Slow printing in an office has two distinct forms: the job takes a long time to reach the printer, or it reaches the printer quickly but takes a long time to come out. Measuring which one you have is the first step, because the fixes don't overlap.
Measure where the time goes
Send a one-page plain-text document, then a typical problem document. Watch the print queue on the computer or print server.
- The job sits in the queue for a long time: the delay is in spooling, rendering or the network.
- The job leaves the queue quickly but the printer is slow to start: the delay is in the device, such as warming up from sleep or processing a heavy job.
- Only certain documents are slow: the document is the cause.
Step-by-step
Check document size
Scanned PDFs, documents with high-resolution images and drawings can produce spool files of hundreds of megabytes. Check the job size in the queue. Reducing image resolution in the source document, or using the application's print-optimized PDF export, usually has the largest single effect.
Use the right driver language
For general office documents, a PCL 6 driver is typically faster than PostScript. For design and engineering work, PostScript may render complex graphics more efficiently. Use the manufacturer's model-specific or universal driver rather than a generic one.
Review where jobs are rendered
On a print server, jobs can be rendered on each client or on the server. If the server is slow or overloaded, the setting Render print jobs on client computers on the shared printer moves that work back to the clients. Check the server's CPU, memory and disk during printing to confirm.
Replace WSD ports
WSD ports add discovery overhead and occasional delays. A Standard TCP/IP port pointing directly at the printer's fixed IP address is faster and more predictable.
Review printer sleep settings
If the first job after a quiet period is always slow, the device is waking from deep sleep. Many business devices allow the wake time or sleep depth to be adjusted from the embedded web page.
Check the network link
A printer connected at a reduced link speed, or through a failing patch cable or switch port, will receive large jobs slowly. The printer's network configuration page shows its negotiated link speed; compare it with what the switch reports.
Check the printer's memory and storage
Devices with limited memory slow down sharply on large or complex jobs. The configuration page shows installed memory. For high-volume use, a memory upgrade or a device suited to the workload may be the right answer.