How To

Increasing the Print Speed

General tips
Using the Speed & Progress dialog box (Windows only)
Using Port Configuration (Windows NT 4.0 only)

Follow the instructions in this section to increase the printing speed of your printer.

General tips

Just as printing at a high resolution requires more processing time than printing at a low resolution, printing in color takes longer than printing in black-and-white because the volume of data in a color document is much greater. For this reason, it is important to be selective in your use of color if you also require a fast print speed.

However, even if your document requires the highest resolution and extensive use of color — for example, when you are printing a camera-ready composite that includes color photographs — it may still be possible to optimize the print speed by adjusting other printing conditions. Keep in mind that changing some conditions to increase the print speed may also lower print quality.

The following table shows the factors that inversely affect print speed and print quality (increasing one will decrease the other).

The table below shows the factors related to print speed only.

*  Varies depending on the application that you are using.

**  Grayscale means using black ink only to print varying shades of gray, ranging from pure black to pure white.

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Using the Speed & Progress dialog box (Windows only)

Windows users can make certain print speed settings in the Speed & Progress dialog box. Click the Speed & Progress button on your printer software's Utility menu. The following dialog box appears.

The settings related to print speed are listed below.

Note:

The specific features available in the printer software vary depending on the printer model and the version of Windows that you are using.

High Speed Copies

To print multiple copies of your document faster, select High Speed Copies. This speeds up printing by using your hard disk space as a cache when printing multiple copies of your document.

EPSON Printer Port

For printer models that use the parallel port, select this check box to enable the EPSON printer port, which is optimized for EPSON printers, instead of the Windows default printer port. This speeds up the data transfer rate to EPSON printers. Parallel port users can further increase print speed by enabling DMA transfer, as explained below.

Enabling DMA transfer

If your computer has a parallel port which supports ECP mode, you can enable DMA transfer to speed up printing. See your computer manual to determine if it supports ECP mode and DMA transfer.

To determine whether you need to enable DMA transfer, compare the message below the EPSON Printer Port check box to this table, and take the recommended action.

If you want to enable DMA transfer, follow the steps below.

For Windows Me, 2000, NT 4.0, 98 and 95 users double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop and then Control Panel.

For Windows XP users, click Start, then click Control Panel.

For Windows Me, 2000, NT 4.0, 98 and 95 users double-click the System icon and click the Device Manager tab.

For Windows XP users, click Performance and Maintenance, then click System, then click Hardware tab, then click Device Manager.

Double-click the Ports (COM & LPT) icon and then the LPT1 icon. If your printer is connected to a port other than LPT1, double-click the appropriate port icon.

Click the Resources tab, then clear the Use automatic settings check box. Write down the Input/Output Range settings shown in the resource settings box.

Select a basic configuration setting from the Setting based on list that uses the same Input/Output Range settings as those you wrote down in Step 4, and make sure that the Direct Memory Access channel and Interrupt Request numbers are allocated and displayed. Confirm also that the Conflicting device list text box shows No conflicts.

Click OK to save the settings.

Reopen the Speed & Progress dialog box to verify whether DMA transfer has been enabled.

Note:

You may not be able to use DMA transfer on some computers even after you make the settings explained above. Consult your computer maker for information on the DMA transfer capability of your computer.

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Using Port Configuration (Windows NT 4.0 only)

Note:

Port settings are complicated and should only be made by an experienced user with administrative privileges.

If your computer has a parallel port that supports ECP mode, you can make certain print speed settings in the Port Configuration dialog box. Before making settings, make sure that ECP mode has been selected in your computer settings. For details about ECP mode, see your computer manual.

To access the Port Configuration dialog box, click the Start button, point to Settings, and click Printers. Then, select your printer and click Properties on the File menu. The printer driver opens. Click the Ports tab, then click Configure Port. The following dialog box appears.

Click the LPT port tab for the port to which your printer is connected, then click the Port Configuration button.

Note:

If your printer is connected to LPT1, only the LPT1 tab is available.

The available settings are as follows:

Resource settings (IRQ and DMA)

If you have connected your printer to LPT2 or LPT3, making IRQ and DMA settings here may speed up printing. Click Change setting and input the same configuration numbers for IRQ and DMA which you have made with your expansion board. See your computer documentation to determine the settings for IRQ and DMA.

Use DMA transfer

Using DMA transfer to send print data to the computer may help speed up printing. If the Use DMA Transfer check box is not enabled, you must first enable DMA transfer in your computer settings. For details, see your computer documentation.

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