Printing from V5 very slow

[inga78]

Hi folks,

we are running PDF-XChange nearly 5 weeks for about 200 Users.
The problem we have is, that printing of the documents is very
slow.

For example a PDF with 2 sides / no colour / 40KB size needs about
12 seconds to print.
After opening the document and clicking printer-button, the print
menu appears in about 3 seconds. Clicking on print button, the sides
needs to about 10 seconds till printer works. The progressbar appear
and runs 10 seconds

I have checked it with 4 different printers on two different printservers.
The issue is all the same.

A test with FoxitReader (sucks!) needs just 3 seconds to print the
pages.

Hope there will be a solution, because we don't want to deploy again
Foxit(sucking)Reader

My invironment:
Server 2008R2 as Citrix Terminalserver
12 CPU cores
24 GB RAM
as VM on Hyper-V 2012R2

Kind regards
Inga

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Inga,

Thanks for the post and sorry to hear that you're having issues.

I have checked it with 4 different printers on two different printservers. The issue is all the same.

Do all four printers experience the same issue?

Also could you please tell me what application you are printing from and what build of the driver you are running? The driver's version and build info. can be found by right clicking the printer in the Devices and Printers section of Windows, selecting "Printing Preferences", then going to the About tab.

Cheers,

[inga78]

Hi Will,

sorry for the late reply, I was on vacation the last 3 days

> Do all four printers experience the same issue?
Yes they do. All printer are very slow on printing.

> Also could you please tell me what application you are printing from
We open a PDF from Outlook 2010, that opens PDF-XChange (latest version). Also of the PDF is opened
directly with PDF-XChange same issue appears.

> Printerdriver
The buildnumber and driver is attached as screenshot.

Hope it helps

Kind regards
Inga

[John - Tracker Supp]

can you advise are you printing from our Viewer or Editor ?

Your post is in our print drivers forum which is for people creating new PDF files using our PDF print drivers - but it would appear your printing an existing PDF to paper using our Viewer or Editor on a physical printer - which is obviously a very different issue ...

Also please advise the Build number from the 'About' Window.

Thanks

[inga78]

Hi there,

ups, I think I was on the wrong section. We are printing from PDF-XChange Editor.
Should I repost the issue to the right one or can you move it ?

PDF-Exchange Editor 5.5 Build 308.2 from July 29th 2014

Kind regards
Inga

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hi Inga,

The topic is now in the correct Editor forum.
And can you please try with build 309.0 from our website and let us know if printing is still slow:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/pdf-xchange-editor

Do you have "print as images" turned on or off?

Regards,
Stefan

[inga78]

Hi Stefan,

thank you for movin in the right topic

Now I have upgraded to .309 - but still printing is very slow.

> Where can I verify "print as image" in PDF-XChange ?
Ups, found it - it is disabled !

Kind regards
Inga

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hi Inga,

I see that all 4 printers are on a print server, but are all of them PCL or Post Script ones?
Can you try to print to the same devices but using different drivers (if there are more than one set for a given device provided by the manufacturer) ?

Regards,
Stefan

[inga78]

Hi Stefan,

I have tried it with two different printdrivers (HP Universal Driver and the system build in) on a 2012R2 and also on a 2008R2
printserver. Same issue. I think the processbar till printing is per design. But with FoxitSuckingReader the processbar is faster
so our users are a little bit nerved when they print a bunch of pdf-files.

Kind regards
Inga

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Can you send us sample document for testing?
I suspect that the issue is because the PDF-XChange uses GDI for printing for now, and with PCL printers it is not optimal.

[inga78]

Hi Ivan,

with any PDF-File (black/white or coloured, 40kb or 40mb of size) we have same issue.

For example you can use:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1 ... ndbuch.pdf

Just printing page 1-3 of the manual works 12 seconds with the processbar until the paper
comes out from printer. (see attachment)

Should we try switching PCL-driver to PS ?

Kind regards
Inga

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Can you send screenshot of your print dialog that corresponds to the progress shown on the screenshot? It doesn't look like you are printing only pages "1-3".

[bqxmprij]

I just want jump in here. Printing (the spooling part) the iPad document above took about 1:30 using PDF-XChange Editor 5.5 (309.0) and PDF-XChange Printer 2012. I downloaded the pro package yesterday.

On the other hand, printing (the spooling part) the same document from Adobe Acrobat and PDF-XChange Printer 2012 took about 45 seconds.

Actually getting through the whole process was another story. It took about 5 and 1/2 minutes for whole process of getting to the printed pdf with PDF-XChange Editor 5.5 (309.0) and PDF-XChange Printer 2012. The whole process with Adobe Acrobat and PDF-XChange Printer 2012 was under 2 minutes.

Based on my experience, this is typical. I usually open a pdf in Acrobat if I want to print it. Let me know if I can provide any information that would help. I like allot of things about PDF-XChange Editor, but printing certainly leaves something to be desired.

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Do you use the same settins (like DPI, paper size, etc.) for printing from both Acrobat and the Editor?
Would be helpful if you can send us screenshot of both print dialogs: Acrobat's and Editor's

[bqxmprij]

I used PDF-XChange Printer 2012 for both printings without changing any settings. I cannot see why something would be different.

I have attached two sets of screenshots. Hope this helps.

[inga78]

Can you send screenshot of your print dialog that corresponds to the progress shown on the screenshot? It doesn't look like you are printing only pages "1-3".

Hi Ivan,

sorry for the late reply - we have switched the printdriver from PCL to PS and the printingprocess seems to be much faster than before.
I will read the other posts (I did not have time today ).

The printingdialog screen is attached to this message.

Kind regards
Inga

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

To bqxmprij: can you please uncheck the option "Choose Paper Size by Document's Page Size" on Editor's print dialog and try again?
With this option set the Editor prints on '18x24' paper while Adobe prints on Letter (8.5x11)
In some cases paper size might have a difference.

[inga78]

Hi there,

I have also proofed that "Choose Paper Size by Document's Page Size" is unchecked.
But both priting procedure (PCL also PS) are very slow.

So I have run a test with one of our central printers (Canon) - and that printing progress
is faster than the one with HP.
Our organisation has about 70 printers by HP same model as tested. So we can't switch
printing to the central printers by Canon.

Is there any solution ? We don't want to switch back to FoxitReader/AdobeReader because
the features by PDF-XChange are very lovely

Kind regards
Inga

[Willy Van Nuffel]

A while ago there was a topic about "Print Files Too Large":
> https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/ ... 35&p=82664

A ticket (RT-2482) was made for this.

A new test with most recent PDF-XChange Editor version 5.5 (build 309.0) still shows the same problem.

Maybe inga78 can do a similar test ?

It could be an indication for differences in printing speed between PDF-XChange Editor and Adobe or Foxit Reader,
because they generate print files that are (a lot) smaller.

Regards.

[inga78]

Hi to all,

I've tried following things:

1. printing on same printer with PS driver
-> same slow printing
2. printing on MS XP-Printer
-> very fast
3. printing to file
-> also very fast
4. printing on canon printer
-> very fast

It seems that PDF-XChange has problems with HP printers.
I've found a microsoft kb that describes a similar problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979394

But any of our printerdrivers are above 5.x ( they have 6.1.x or higher).

Kind regards
Inga

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi guys,

Willy - the issue with the larger print jobs is because Adobe is able to utilize PostScript in such a way as to allow for smaller print jobs. This is something that we hope to support in the future.

Inga - it seems what Ivan has said about PCL drivers may well have been correct. I'll pass this along to him for further comment.

Cheers,

[inga78]

Hi there,

any ideas to fix this issue or any further tests ?

Kind regards
Inga

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Myself, I am just curious what the result would be if you should print via PDF-XChange "Viewer".

You can install the "Viewer" besides the "Editor" and choose which one of these two should be the default to open PDFs.

And in response to Will, why is your "Viewer" able to create printfiles that are as small as those of Adobe Reader ?
Would it be possible to use the same programming code for the printing routine in the "Editor" ?

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Can you send me print job files generated by printing the same portion of the same document on the same printer by Viewer, Editor and Adobe (Acrobat or Reader)?
To get these files, you have to pause the printer, make prints, and required files will be stored in "c:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS"

[Willy Van Nuffel]

As an example I took a copy of your informational text about PDF-XChange Editor and put it in a Word 2010 document.
After a few modifications (font, size, lay-out) I did a "Convert to PDF" via PDF-XChange 2012 Office add-in.
The result is a one page PDF - with stamps on it (because at home I do not have a licensed version).

Now, I printed this PDF from:
- PDF-XChange Editor version 5.5 (build 309.0) = Fp00000.spl
- PDF-XChange Viewer version 2.5 (build 214.2) = Fp00001.spl
- Adobe Reader version XI (11.0.0) = Fp00002.spl

The Word document, the resulting PDF and also the *.spl files are included in the attached ZIP-file.

The prints where done
- from a Windows 7 laptop - Home Edition 32-bit - all Microsoft updates installed
- towards a Canon printer MP640

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

What I see from your files, the Editor print text using curves instead of font.

Can you please check your printing settings of the Editor located under "Advanced..." button on Print dialog?



What setting do you have for "Text Rendering Mode:" option?

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Thanks Ivan.

That "Text Rendering Mode" was indeed the reason for my large print files. It was set to "Bitmap Always" (see attached zip).
Probably I have once set this for test reasons. After changing it to "Auto", the size of my (one page) print file changed from 1,62 MB to 48,2 KB (in one word: "spectacular"). This problem has been resolved.

Regards.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

[inga78]

Hey to all,

sorry for my late reply - I was on vacation.
For me it works too! Thank you

But just one quick question. How can I set these settings via GPO/Registry ?

We have around 300 users, so if it is possible to set it central was very useful

Thx
Inga

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hi Inga,

The printing preferences should be stored in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Settings\Operations\PrintPages
on a per user basis - so copying that registry hive from a user with all the settings at the desired values to all others should resolve the problem with large print files.

Regards,
Stefan

[inga78]

Hi Stefan,

these settings worked for me:

"i.Content"=dword:00000189
"i.BitmapDPI"=dword:00000096

After click on print-button with these settings, it seems that there will be a delay of around 2-3 seconds
till the the progressbar appears. But the spoolingprocess now is very fast. I think this issue is solved for
me too!

THX for all comments
Inga

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]