Printing Speed in PC Access for Windows

Quick Contents

Introduction

In our tests at MFM, we have found PC Access to be capable of printing about as fast as fast as other Windows programs, when we set up for maximum speed. Please be aware that Windows itself limits the printing speed of all Windows programs. A Windows program may take slightly longer to get a page out of the printer than a DOS program does. However, Windows has the important advantage of print spooling via the Print Manager, meaning that a user can get control back in an application before a print "job" has finished. A DOS program often prevents the user from entering any commands until printing is complete.

How to Increase your Print Speed in PC Access

1. Click the Setup Menu button on the PC Access for Windows Main Menu window.
2. Click the Advanced button on the Setup Assistant window.
3. Click the Printer(s) button on the Advanced Setup Menu window.
4. On the Printer Setup window, highlight the printer you are using as your default printer in PC Access, and click the Edit button.
5. Now you should be viewing the Edit Printer window. This is where we can set many options that affect printing speed.
6. In the Printing Options group, check the Fast Photo Printing box. (Your version of PC Access may call this the Fast B&W Photo Printing box.)
7. In the Printing Options group, do not check the Enhanced B&W Photos box.
8. In the Choose Fonts group, click the Normal button. This displays a standard Windows Font dialog where you may select the font PC Access will use for Normal text. (Normal text is most of the text in your summary reports and full-listing reports.) To the left of each font name you may see a small icon. TT indicates a "True Type" font. No icon indicates a Windows system font. A printer icon indicates a printer font. Here's the rule: printer fonts print faster than True Type or system fonts, because the Windows printer driver does not need to "render" them.
   • Therefore you should choose a printer font you find acceptable for Normal text. You may need to print a sample report after selecting a font to decide if you like it. Good choices for your normal font would usually be Courier or Courier New.
   • If you do not see any printer fonts, then you may need to re-install your printer's Windows driver. Normally when you install a driver for your printer, the install program asks you if you want to install printer fonts. See your printer's documentation if you have any questions about how to install printer fonts.
   • If you want PC Access to pick a printer font for you automatically, you may check the Fast Text w/Printer Fonts box on the Edit Printer window. However, PC Access may not always select the "best" printer font this way.
9. If you also print CMA reports in a Compressed font, you should click the Compressed button in the Choose Fonts group. Select a printer font for Compressed text.
10. Click the Set Up button on the Edit Printer window. This displays your Windows printer driver's setup dialog. This dialog will be different for every printer driver, so we can't tell you exactly what you will find there. You should consult your printer documentation. However, you should be able to find setup options similar to the following that can affect printing speed:
    • Resolution: This has an enormous effect on photo printing speed and quality. Increasing the resolution improves photo appearance but slows printing dramatically. For example, at 600x600 DPI resolution the computer must calculate four times as many "pixels" to print a photo as at 300x300 DPI. That means the photo requires roughly four times as long to print.
      • Note: Even though Photocom for DOS offers a 600x600 DPI resolution, our experience has been that it really only sends photo data to the printer at a maximum resolution of 300x300 DPI. If your Windows printer driver is printing at 600x600 DPI, it will be dramatically slower than Photocom for DOS.)
    • Dithering: This also affects photo printing and quality. Turning off dithering speeds up photo printing, but may make your photos appear somewhat "checkerboarded."
    • Print Quality: This is an important setting on dot-matrix printers, since they require more print-head passes to form near-letter-quality characters than draft characters. On laser printers, all printer fonts should print at comparable speeds, but you might want to experiment with draft mode anyway.

• Note: Build 93 of PC Access for Windows adds a Test button to the Edit Printer window. This is much more convenient than dialing into your MLS when you are testing your printer setup.
• If you are running a PC Access Build lower than 93, you should download an update.

In addition to above suggestions, the following tips may help increase your print speed:

• Standard Port vs. ECP Port
• Print Spool Settings
• Deskjet or Inkjet Printers
• Install PCL Print Driver

Platform considerations

• A faster computer will speed up printing in all of your DOS and Windows applications. This does not help you immediately, but it is important to keep in mind for your future hardware purchases.
• If your computer has only 4 MB RAM, it will print slowly in Windows due to excessive disk swapping. Even 8 MB RAM may be inadequate on some computers, especially if you are printing photos at high resolution or running multiple applications. Some printer drivers are also quite large and require extra memory to avoid disk swapping. If your disk light flashes frequently while you are printing, consider buying more RAM.
• You can also try disabling the Print Manager in Windows 3.1, or disabling print spooling for your printer driver in Win95. Sometimes this can speed up your Windows printing, at the cost of increasing the time that an application displays an hourglass during printing.
• To compare PC Access for Windows against the printing performance of other Windows applications (such as word processors), you can try copying a photo from PC Access to the Windows clipboard, and pasting it into another application. To copy a photo, move your mouse cursor over it in PC Access and click your right mouse button. From the Photo Commands Speed Menu select Copy to Clipboard. You can also copy text from the Terminal window to the clipboard and paste it into a word processor. Select the Edit | Copy Text menu item on the Terminal window.