To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 3:15 AM
Subject: Re: FOP-produced PDF print job size
If I understand correctly, the problem occurs when the final PDF is processed through a printer driver. The difference in file size and print speed sounds very normal to me. I worked for a major printer manufacturer for over 10 years and I have seen these types of results time and time again.Richard Mixon (qwest) wrote:
Wonder if anyone has seen similar size problems.
I have a .fo document that runs fine through fop. It produces an 8 page document from data in a database. It is most numbers, sort of spreadsheet-like - about 35 rows with 19 columns, plus a header and footer. Most cells have either 1 .5pt dotted borders or a 1pt solid border.
The PDF file is not that large, about 345kB. However when I print it to a HP Laserjet 2100 (using the PCL6 driver) it blows up to 27MB in size and takes forever to print (about 1 page every two minutes).
Well the reason the PCL is so much bigger than equivalent PDF or Postscript output is because the PCL Renderer is incomplete, whilst the PDF and PDF Renderers are more mature. See here for a list of some of the limitations:
http://xml.apache.org/fop/output.html#pcl
I recommend you generate Postscript and then use Ghostscript to print the postscript file on your PCL Laserjets.
Chris
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PostScript is closer in output to the original PDF so there is less to translate and the translation is cleaner. The result is a more simple structure and smaller file sizes.
The PCL driver has to work harder to translate the PDF into an image the print engine understands. With older levels of PCL I would say that the problem is that only way the PCL driver can represent the page is by making it a bitmap. Yes even though the page is "text" it could still be rendered as a graphic under the right conditions. With PCL 6 it is harder to say what is going on.
The inkjet is easy to explain. Inkjets are known to be slow compared to lasers. The inkjet engine is started the moment data hits the port. Also, laser printers must have the full page in memory before they can print that page. Inkjets must only have enough of the page in memory to print a swath (the size of the swatch varies by manufacturer and model). Since the inkjet needs less data to get started it may get off to a quick start but still print the document slower.
As to how to get you documents to print faster in PCL . . . You can try "fiddling" with some of the print settings. Which print settings are most likely to work depends on what platform and who wrote the driver.
Clay
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