How To Increase Print Speed
Last Updated on October 23, 2024 by Christian Ralph
If you’re struggling to get the proposed print speed out of your printer with the intention of completing large jobs quickly, you’re probably going to be concerned if the printer’s performance no longer matches the manufacturer’s advertised print speed. These are based upon the printer completing tasks within specific conditions – so can often be faster than the results you will receive.
Fortunately, there are a number of techniques you can employ which will help you achieve the fastest print speeds possible. Here are our top seven methods for increasing print speed.
1. Check the Connection
Printing wirelessly is incredibly practical, helping a larger number of users benefit from the convenient technology. However, if your wireless connection on your wireless printer or on Bluetooth printers, your print speeds could be suffering. Either find the quickest and strongest available Wi-Fi connection or connect via a physical ethernet, network connection, and your print speeds could receive a much-needed boost.
2. Reduce Print Quality
Acceptable when printing memos and internal documents; reducing print quality can help increase print speeds as less ink or toner is used and print accuracy is considered less important. However, when printing presentations and important reports for clients and customers it is important to make sure the print quality is increased once again, even if it does slow down the process.
The majority of printers will feature some type of draft mode. Enabling draft modes allows for faster rates of printing at lower quality.
Whilst draft mode is not recommended for public facing documents including marketing projects, draft mode is perfect for producing internal documents such as spreadsheets and reports at higher speeds.
When using draft mode, text and images will be produced at lower resolutions with slightly desaturated colours. What is lost in print quality is gained in print speed and the more than acceptable levels of legibility make draft mode an easy way to increase printing speeds.
3. Increase the RAM
Increasing the RAM (Random Access Memory) of the printer will help to enhance the capabilities of your printers and enable you to complete jobs at a higher speed. Many modern printers can be customised and improved with simple additions of extra RAM. Printerland’s accessories range includes extra RAM packages for printers from leading manufacturers.
If you’re considering upgrading to a newer printer, consider looking for a replacement with more RAM and more processing power out of the box; this will help speed up the time the printer takes to prepare documents before printing.
4. Reduce the Number of Pages
By simply fitting more of your content onto each page and reducing the overall number of pages, it is possible to increase print speed. There are several elements, including typeface and margin size, which can be reduced to accommodate more content onto a single page.
Naturally, this is a balancing act – ensuring all the content is legible and clear when presented on a reduced number of pages.
Often, documents contain blank pages. Consider removing these pages from your documents to help condense content and reduce paper wastage where possible. This is often as easy as ticking a checkbox in the print settings before printing to ‘remove blank pages’ automatically.
5. Bypass the Spooler
The printer spooler is an area of the memory which provides a waiting station for information as a device catches up. This can slow down the printing process significantly – especially when unnecessarily used with quick devices and printers.
It is often possible to bypass the spooler by entering the printer options and ticking ‘Print directly to the printer’, potentially speeding up the print process.
6. Clear Legacy Print Jobs
Cancelled and paused print jobs may still be clogging up the memory of the printer – potentially slowing down its operations. Open the Print Queue to determine if there are any legacy print jobs still in there and permanently delete those you no longer require. The newly cleared memory will now be available to help print more quickly.
Update and Upgrade
Some printers only have a very limited print rate and will never perform at breakneck speeds. If you require a speedier machine, it may be time to upgrade your printer. At Printerland, we stock the top printer models from the world’s most trusted and respected manufacturers, capable of incredible print speeds.
FAQs
How does print speed affect print quality?
Generally, slower print speeds tend to produce better results. However, when it comes to standard text documents or everyday images, the quality of the prints will still be high even when the speed is on the quicker side of things. Just be careful when printing on different mediums, such as glossy phot paper and cardstock as here it may be important to print more slowly to achieve higher quality.
What is a good print speed?
A printer with a print output of less than 20 pages per minute will be relatively slow. Anything between 20 and 40ppm is adequate for most offices, and anything over 40ppm will be ideal for higher-volume use.
Which is the best printer technology for superior print speeds?
When it comes to choosing a printer best suited for delivering fast print speeds, a laser printer is almost always the clear choice.
Laser printing technology offers a significant increase in print speeds compared to alternative print technologies primarily due to the increased rate of internal laser component movement speeds.
Whereas inkjet printers use tiny droplets of ink which are sprayed via nozzles to create a finished print, laser printers use laser beam technology to create an electrostatically charged image onto a photoconductive drum.
The use of a laser beam allows for a much faster printing process compared to inkjet printing.
Purchasing a high-speed printer from Printerland
Hopefully, this article has helped to shed some light on the best ways to increase your print speeds.
Printerland stocks a broad range of high-speed printers from a variety of leading manufacturers including Xerox, HP, Kyocera and more.
With a variety of models including single-function, multifunction, A4 and A3 printing solutions, you can find a printer that’s suits your specific requirements and budget.
All our models are available for instant purchase directly from the Printerland website, or if you require additional advice why not contact a member of our professional sales team to help find the perfect printer for you.
