First of all, I love the output of this Epson 750. It really is Photo quality. Only problem is that it takes too long. For example, a 6X9" photo at best quality on photo paper took about 22 minutes.

Tell me, is this a typical speed for this printer. How fast do other Epson 750's print (include times and sizes)?

Is there some settings, besides quality of print, that could be changed to improve the speed?

Here's my configuration: I'm running Win 95B at 566 mhz with 256 MB Ram, so it's not too slow of a computer. The printer is currently on a Parallel port using a 10 foot bidirectional cable. Does USB make a big difference?

Thanks for reading, any contributions would be greatly appreciated!!

Jon

-- Jonathan Banzon (j1sauce@aol.com), October 26, 1999

Answers

I had my Epson 750 hooked to parallel and an 8X10 took about 8 minutes to print at 1440 DPI. I switched to USB and have not noticed any difference in print time, although it takes less time to dowload the picture to start printing. Your printer is not your problem, maybe your parallel connection is defective.

-- William May (pli@inreach.com), October 26, 1999.

William,

Thanks for the response. If the parallel port is defective, wouldn't the printer cease to print? I was thinking it might be a software problem.

Does it matter which program you print from? And how about file size? In Photoshop, when I resize a picture to say 5x7 from 10x14 inches and keep the best quality, the file size increase by several-fold.

In the printer properties, how about printing directly or to a spooler? What's the difference between RAW and EMF?

Again, thanks for any input.

Jon

-- Jonathan Banzon (j1sauce@aol.com), October 26, 1999.

There are four types of parallel ports, the original or "standard" port being extremely slow. The bi-directional parallel port was an improvement but the new EPP/ECP parallel ports are twice as fast as the current version of USB. (This is why I bought a cheap parallel flash card reader card rather than the more expensive USB card reader for my digicam, even though I have two USB ports on my computer.)

If your mother board has USB ports it also has the fast EPP/ECP port as well. If you have this newer type of motherboard, then it could possibly be that your port is configured for the standard parallel port rather than EPP/ECP. (Windows detects whether you have an ECP port but won't set up the port for you. Also, it must be implemented in your computer's BIOS.) Check your port using Device Manager to see if the LPT1 port reads "ECP Printer Port". If not, check any Windows "98 book and follow the instructions for setting up an ECP port (Livingston & Straub, "Windows 98 Secrets", page 975, is one source. It is not difficult to do.

-- Albert Klee (aklee@fuse.net), October 26, 1999.

Hmmm, you mentioned the print size and that you were printing in 1440 dpi mode, but how large was the file in pixels(image resolution)? If it has to be interpolated to a different PPI it will take a lot of processing and disk spinning time. Large files can take forever just to process before they start printing out. If you're creating files with a resolution of 1440 DPI and printing them at 1440 DPI, you're guilding the lily in a BIG way! You only need about 360 DPI files, so a 2160x1440 pixel file will make a nice 6x4" image. If you can get a better result at 720 DPI, you'll need a 4320x2880 pixel file. You may notice a trend here, in that each time you double the PPI, you actually increase the file size and the processing time by at least a factor of 4! WOW, that adds up quick! If you resize the image and set the DPI or PPI to match what you can expect from the printer it may take less time to process the image and spool it to the printer. At 1440 DPI it's probably realistic to expect the image to print reasonably well at 360PPI or some sub multiple of that. I found that my Epson worked pretty well at about 128 PPI(it's an older 720DPI model). Which happened to work out nicely for a 1280x1024 image printed at 10x8". The dithering routine you use will also significantly increase the time needed. The random/diffused settings usually take 20-40% or so longer than fine dithering modes with my older Epson Stylus Color. It's well worth the time for good images though.

Check to see that your bios is set up for the ECP or EPP port settings and then reboot and check that Windows sees it, but I bet that your problem was caused by using too large files and then having the machine spin it's wheels for several minutes to chop them down b4 it could start printing.

Good Luck, and let us know how you make out?

-- Gerald Payne (gmp@francorp.francomm.com), October 27, 1999.

While you are trying to up your speed don't expect to be able to use USB. The Epson drivers for the 750 do not support USB under Windows 95 of any version. Yeah, I know it seems like it should based on the box lables during the install process and it is a "choice" but it is not really a choice. Found that after trying to get it to work USB on my system. Finally found it out on the Epson web site when I was checking to see if I had the latest drivers, etc. The system did allow USB use of a 740 in the shop so it's not a blanket non-support for all the Epson printers under 95. This was particularly frustrating as we had just upgraded a relatively old system to a new motherboard to add memory and USB capability. I'm running both a laser printer (Epson 1100), parallel scanner (Umax Astra 1220P)and the 750 off the same port. I was and still am using a switch (Belkin Bitronics dataswitch F1U123) downstream of the scanner and wanted to try USB. But try the parallel port suggestions, I'm not seeing speeds that would be that slow for that size pic. and I'm running a 200 mhz machine with 96 meg ram! Also make sure you have a good, current up to new standards cable!

-- Craig Gillette (cgillette@thegrid.net), October 28, 1999.

I suspect you are sending the printer an unnecessarily big file. Most Epson printers print superb "photoquality" prints when supplied with 240 ppi files. Certainly, no more than 300 ppi is required. Do not confuse printer "dpi" with file "ppi". The printer uses multiple dots to represent each pixel. It uses between 4 and 6 dots (depending upon whether you have a 4 or 6 color Epson printer) to represent each color. The computer, on the other hand, can specify a specific color value for each individual pixel. In the Photoshop Image Size dialog box you can choose to resize your photo with or without a change in pixel dimensions. If you downsize the photo without interpolating the PPI downwards you end up with a huge file, which chokes the processor and your printer and slows things down. Next time, open the file in photoshop, open the Image Size dialog box and be sure both "constrain proportions" and "resample image" are checked. Under "resolution" type in "300". You can actually get away with "240" without any change in image quality that I can detect. This will produce a much smaller file with the appropriate resolution for your printer. Click on OK and send the file to the printer with the printer set at its best settings. I think you will find that you get excellent results in much less time. The appropriate resolution for files destined for an Epson printer is somewhere between 240 and 300. Even a Lightjet 5000 only requires a 305 ppi file.

-- Steve Rosenblum (srosenblum@maybaum.med.umich.edu), October 30, 1999.