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Author Topic: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer  (Read 33143 times)

jimcamel

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #140 on: October 12, 2019, 11:08:38 am »

Spooling speed from a MAC.....really slow to z9+ using the Raster driver.

I have been printing some larger prints on the z9+, 44" and have been experiencing really slow spooling speeds from my MacPro, via ethernet.  Prints maybe 30" square take more than 15 minutes to transfer using the Raster driver.  Mac OS Mojave, 10.14.6.  Current HP Printer drivers.

I'm printing directly from LR Classic Desktop...although I have developed a test case with a JPG file that's 44wide by 18" tall that exhibits the same issue when printed using the Raster driver directly from Mac's Preview app.

On the Mac's Activity Monitor app, you can observe the Network "Data Sent per Second" running at less than 1MB/second...and often in the 500KB/second range ... so on large prints it's understandable this works out to 15+ minutes before the printer starts - and then printing operates at a normal speed.  It's the spooling that's the issue.

I raised this as a support issue with HP this week and they are investigating it.  They have certainly re-produced the issue on their Mac setup.  Interestingly, they have also tested it on Win10 .... and the spooling speed from the windows computer is running at nearly 70MB/sec...which is what you would sort-of expect on a gigabit ethernet connection.  Using that, 15 minutes of spooling time drops to 15-30 seconds.

This is on the raster driver...which I have been using instead of the PS driver.  The PS driver is a bit faster but I have run into sone very noticeable color shifts when printing with it using ICC profiles I have generated on the Z9.....so returning to use the PS driver is not an option for me.

So, my question is if any others have you have experienced this on the Z9+ or the earlier 3200 series printer ?  If you have found a network parameter that fixes it, etc ? Have you seen such a vast difference in spooling speeds between a Mac and Windows setup?

The case at HP is ongoing ... but I am hoping for some input from our community.

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Mark Lindquist

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #141 on: October 14, 2019, 11:53:58 am »

Hey Jim-

I don't print out of LR, instead I softproof and print out of Photoshop and I'm not experiencing the lengthy spooling issue.

When I get a little free time I'll try printing from LR and see if I see the same problem you're experiencing.

I understand from past conversations that you prefer LR, but as a test, why not print out of PS and see if it goes faster just to see.

-Mark

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jimcamel

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #142 on: October 14, 2019, 10:21:13 pm »

Hi Mark, thanks for that.

Between smoking a turkey and having dinner (hey it's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend), I got some more time to work on this too.  And I have some answers.

It's not a LR issue - and I was able to develop a test case using just a TIF file and Mac's Preview app to replicate it easily....so that took LR out of the issue.

I got some feedback from HP that they were able to replicate it on their Mac's - but they also found that the problem didn't show up on Windows (you remember you mentioned that your XP machine seemed to spool faster).  That was a key piece of information because it indicated that it wasn't necessarily a problem with the printer's network implementation.

I kind of suspected this and worked at setting up the printer connection differently.  Rather than using Apple's Bonjour, I set it up to use the printer's IP address directly (second tab in the Add a New Printer dialog box).  I know my printer is on 192.168.1.199.  And it uses Jet Direct.

Massive improvement, 10-15 times faster....now showing speeds occasionally peaking about 12MB/sec in the activity monitor.  The practical implication is that I file I printed earlier today (48x43") took about half-an-hour to spool and tonight it's spooling in maybe a minute or less...once LR finishes rendering it.

* I didn't print all those ;)

So, it's simple to lock down the IP address in my router so the printer sticks on "199" and I can live with that for a while and I'll feed this back to HP in the morning.  They may have a different recommendation for how to approach it, but I suspect that Bonjour is the issue.
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Mark Lindquist

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Re: HP Designjet Z9 - HP has launched a new large format photo printer
« Reply #143 on: October 15, 2019, 03:51:52 am »

Interesting, Jim. I never use Bonjour - always specific static IP addresses.
There is also a setting to begin printing immediately so it just starts right away printing while continuing to spool. I can’t remember where that is but you may already have it set that way.
Check out settings in the embedded web server. If you go to job queue>look up, follow past the warnings, you get there and the network settings are there. Pretty sure you can do the same from the front panel of the printer.
The begin printing immediately setting should be there.
Funny how both HP and Adobe each think it’s the other’s fault, but in the end it often boils down to a network or system setting. The z9

One should be able to print equally fast with the PS and raster drivers, ultimately.

Good work sussing things out. BTW, it was a Win 8.1 Pro machine, not XP.

Best-

Mark

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Mark Lindquist
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