slow printing

[rod_yo]

Is there a way of speeding up my black and white printing. I'm using

an HP 7660 on a PC with XP and 512MB RAM. Some of my file sizes are in

excess of 500MB. Am I scanning at too high a res. I use a scanwit with

vuescan. Suggestions would be very much welcomes as a 6*4 inch print

can take almost 15 minutes.

 

Rod

[glenn_jobson]

I think you need to look at the output size of your image, how many dpi are you sending to the printer...? More than 300dpi I bet.

 

Do some investigation on output size and appropriate dpi, the investigation you do will help you get the file optimised for output.

 

Glenn @ colour-mad.co.uk

[stephen_lutz]

I cannot imagine a 4x6 sized print from a 500MB file. I cannot even imagine a 500MB file. :) Out of curiousity, what sort of process do you use that results in file sizes this big? Even in RAW mode, converted to 16 bit TIF files, I haven't seen a file size even remotely this large.

 

My little Canon CP-220 spits out 4x6 prints from files in 80 seconds or so (that are sometimes less than 1 MB in size) that are perfectly satisfactory (defined as "at least as good as I get from a store, printing a negative").

[steve_swinehart]

Resize your image at 300 dpi to fit the 4x6-inch format (1800 dpi x 1200 dpi).

 

You also don't say if you're using Photoshop with layers. Layers greatly increase the file size. If you are printing the image with layers, flatten the image, then save as a TIFF. Call up the TIFF, resize the image at 300 dpi at the size you want to print, and send to the printer.

 

When you're done printing, close the TIFF without saving so that you have the full resolution image in case you want to make another print at a different image size.

[rod_yo]

Thanks for the help. These are tiff files from my scanner. I scanning in at 2700 dpi and then resizing in Photoshop Elements. I'm using vuescan with 24 bit RGB. I just want good quality prints from black and white. Should I be changing the output dpi to something much lower for the printer?