martinka@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Joe Martinka) (03/15/91)
I am very pleased with my HP Deskjet on my home PC. It works great from graphics packages and spreadsheet packages (such as DrawGal and Quattro). However, I am displeased at the speed that WordPerfect 5.1 prints out graphics to that printer. It sends any graphical output, even simple lines around tables, a pixel line at a time. The Deskjet head passes across the page seemingly 150 times per inch!! This seems to take place whenever WorkPerfect is ever mixing multiple graphic images in the same character line, or if it is mixing text and graphics on the character line. Does anyone know of a speed-up to this slow printing? Does WordPerfect have a "fix" or workaround to this problem? Thanks Joe Martinka
hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu (Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy)) (03/19/91)
Wordperfect graphics is slow on a Laserjet too ! Hardy -------****------- Meinhard E. Mayer (Prof.) Department of Physics, University of California Irvine CA 92717;(714) 856 5543; hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu or MMAYER@UCI.BITNET
RFM@psuvm.psu.edu (03/19/91)
HP sells a printer spooler/buffer program which, while it won't speed up the actual print process for a DJ500, at least will free up your PC for other work while printer is working. Only problem, the program costs $150 ($115, academic)! YIPES! Wonder if the spooler program that comes with PC Tools 6.0 would work? Bob M., PSU-Harisburg
martinka@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Joe Martinka) (03/20/91)
Thanks to those that responded. Most complained of similar problems. Some suggested to use parallel ports instead of serial (I am), and to make sure that the hardware handshaking is implemented correctly. The Deskjet can print complex graphical images very efficiently if graphics is not mixed with text. I have witnessed that graphical printing of spreadsheet graphs, drawing gallery files and indeed, graphical mode on spreadsheets like Quattro can load entire swaths of pixels (what, about 16 to 24 pixels?) at once to be printed in one sweep of the print head. This yields satisfactory printing performance. Speaking to Wordperfect support today, they acknowledge the slow Deskjet graphics printing, claiming that the "poor printer buffer" or "limited RAM Space" restricts their speed when graphics and text are to be printed together. I do not agree. There could be smarter ways of optimizing the printing IMHO. THEIR WORKAROUND: Print graphics and text separately on the same page...once with the graphics mode as "DO NOT PRINT" and again with text mode as "DO NOT PRINT" in the printer menu options. I'll try that and check if it helps. I would gladly recycle the pages through the printer if it knocks 13 minutes off of a 15 minute print per page. The two printer configurations could be set up as a WP macro... They also volunteered to send me a 5.1 update which writes directly to the printer's hardware port instead of through the BIOS routines. I am not sure that this will address the problem but accepted their offer. -Joe
martinka@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Joe Martinka) (03/21/91)
Well, I tried the Workperfect advice for a workaround. Full page tables with lines, printed twice: once with text set to "do not print" and once with graphics set to "do not print". Disappointment! The graphics printing speed did NOT improve. Today, from an internal HP notes group I got the canonical explanation of the slow graphics performance from Wordperfect 5.1 to the Deskjet Plus which seemed to be the most clear from a source in the division which builds the Deskjet. Some of the posting follows: 8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 Organization: Hewlett Packard, Vancouver, WA > I auditioned HP printers for screen-dumps from a Graphon X-terminal and > found the same thing. All HP ink-jet printers (including DeskJet+) seem > to print from the Graphon much more slowly (say, 10x) than they are > capable of. The Graphon was configured for a LaserJet+; there must be > some ugly interaction with the inkjet printers. >>The inkjet printers all support compression on graphics. The laserjets >>don't. So laserjet applications don't run on the inkjets as fast as >>they could. Here is the real answer: The DeskJet+ and 500 are fully capable of doing high speed graphics (usually faster in graphics than laser printers) and mixing text and graphics at reasonable speed. The problem is with some printer drivers are just "warmed over" LaserJet drivers that do one of the 2 following "data compression tricks" that helps the performance on laser printers but cause the DeskJets to print with just a few nozzles (instead of all the nozzels). 1) The printer driver continually changes the "left graphics margin" by moving the cursor and then telling the printer to start printing at the current cursor position. Note that there really is not such thing as a left graphics margin, but by moving the cursor and then specify start the raster graphics at the cursor position one is attempting to create a left graphics margin. 2) The printer continually modifies the raster graphics width. On a laser printer, the above tricks can be used as a form of data compression. On a DeskJet, either of the tricks require flushing data and re-allocating its limitted memory, resulting in printing with just a few nozzles. The DeskJets have true data compression modes to reduce the data and the above "tricks" generally are discouraged unless the left margin and raster width does not change over a page (or changes very infrequently). If you ever see a DeskJet+ or DeskJet 500 print with just a few nozzles, the driver is most likely doing one of the above "mistakes" (which are not mistakes for laser printers). I didn't know WordPerfect 5.1 had that problem. In any case, call the vendor and complain. The ---------------------------------======== DeskJet+ and 500 should always be using most of its nozzles (technically 48) when printing graphics. If you are just seeing one or 2 nozzles (raster rows) per print pass, the driver is not well optimized for the DeskJet -- probably due to the fact it is just a warmed over LaserJet driver. Our support people also complain to the vendors, but complaints from real customers can often do more good. The DeskJet+ and DeskJet 500 should be about 1 page per minute for graphics dumps. If you get anything less, you probably have a poor driver. Of course you have to factor in the time to image the page, so its best to image to a file and then dump the file (use the MS-DOS copy /b filaname PRN) command to measure the actual print time. 8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 I underlined the words "call the vendor and complain." Well, the Wordperfect number to call for non-impact non-laser printer support (DeskJet YEAHH) is: 1-800-541-5097. I recommend that a few of us DeskJet owners give them a call! I checked around on some of their other support numbers and asked if any of the WordPerfect support people monitor the net. They said they monitor their own bulletin board system. Too bad. :-< Joe Martinka
neff@hp-vcd.HP.COM (Dave Neff) (03/23/91)
Regarding slow graphics print to DeskJet+ or DeskJet 500: The real problem with some "warmed over LaserJet" drivers for the DeskJet is the drivers use continually varying "graphics margins" (technically graphics widths and start printing at a particular cursor position) as a sort of data compression. Whenever the graphics print width or left margin varies, the DeskJets must flush current graphics and then re-allocate memory. The DeskJet has real data compression modes and can print graphics as well as mixed text and graphics quite fast with properly written drivers. We try to encourage the software vendors to meet certain minimum performance guidelines, but of course we can't force them to "do it right". Anything more than about 2 minutes per page for any type of output likely suggests a driver problem (for the DeskJet+ and DeskJet 500, the Classic is quite slow in graphics for other reasons). The particular offending escape sequences are Esc *r1A (start graphics at current cursor position, compared to Esc *r0A which means start graphics at the left paper edge) and Esc *r#S (set raster width). If the raster width is set once per page, and the left cursor position doesn't vary over the page the DeskJets do just fine. But when these parameters vary every few raster rows, then performance goes down the tube. Proper use of data compression eliminates any real advantage of using these kinds of tricks (that can achieve a measure of data compression on laser printers). Generally, WordPerfect has been pretty good about modifying their driver to support the DeskJet printers. I'm surprised to hear they are blaming the printer and not trying to improve the driver. This is contrary to what I have heard from our own support people. In all fairness to WordPerfect and other software packages, it is quite tricky to do merged text and graphics correctly to the DeskJet printers. There is an algorithm that works and give good performance, but it is often difficult for some word processors to implement. To compound the problem, the DeskJet Classic was so slow for graphics it sometimes masked driver problems that vendors have still not fixed for the now faster Plus and 500. Dave Neff neff@hpvcfs1.HP.COM Disclaimer: I don't work in HP support. I write printer firmware (including some of the code for the DeskJet+ and DeskJet 500). The above are my opinions based on my knowledge of the printers and don't necessarily reflect official HP opinions.
martinka@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Joe Martinka) (03/28/91)
SUCCESS....FINALLY I received yesterday the Wordperfect 5.1 update sent to me by their support organization. My original date for 5.1 (obtained from the upper left portion of the screen after pressing F3) was 10/6/89. The update package of disks (which seemed to be all of the original disks) now have a release date of 12/31/90. The Deskjet Plus printer help screen from those disks now has a date in January 1991. Good news: The printing is now full speed with this version of Wordperfect. Heavy graphics pages (with multiple TIF images) formally taking 20 minutes to print are 2 minutes. Tables which printed so very slowly, a few pixels per sweep now are using the entire print head. What a great difference. I suggest any one having a Deskjet PLUS or 500 contact WordPerfect for the 12/31/90 version of 5.1. Good luck Joe Martinka ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Hardware Systems Performance :: voice - 408 447-6755 :: :: Hewlett-Packard Company :: email - martinka@hpda :: :: 19447 Pruneridge Avenue, MS 42LX :: martinka%hpda@hplabs.HP.COM:: :: Cupertino, CA. 95014-9974 USA :: fax - 408 447-4907 :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::