How to force Tiger to print doc within Classic environment, not with OSX?

Question

I want to print certain documents using OS9's printing utility within the Classic environment, and NOT using Tiger's standard OSX printing method. How?
I know it is possible because I have two Macs connected to the same printer, and it works on one and not the other. I can't figure out why.
Here are the specifics:
I have a printer, the Ricoh Laser AP2600. Connected to it are two computers:
a PowerBook G4 running 10.4.7, and
an iMac running 10.3.9.
When I print documents from OSX applications, the two computers take the exact same time to print. HOWEVER, when I print from Classic applications, the iMac running 10.3.9 prints very quickly, but the PB running 10.4.7 takes two to three times as long. That's because the iMac prints the document using the old OS9 "Print Monitor" printing utility, and never passes the printing back to Tiger. Whenever I try to print a document from a Classic application on the PB, however, it passes the printing to the standard OSX printing method, which (for some reason) is much slower.
(Sorry if I'm not using the right terminology.)
I checked and double-checked, and as far as I can tell, all the "printer descriptions" and "drivers" and everything else is absolutely identical in both System 9 "Extension" folders on both computers. I installed the exact same Ricoh print-driver packages for OSX and Classic on both machines identically. So -- why does one print quickly within Classic, and the other pass the printing job back to slow OSX?
The specific application that causes this discrepancy is MSWord 5.1a, a very old version that only works under Classic. (I use it a lot because I prefer it to more recent versions of MSWord.)
A secondary, but related, question: Why does printing documents from within the Classic environment go so much more quickly than in OSX? It seems to be one of the few aspects of OSX that's worse than OS9.
So -- how can I make my PB behave like my iMac? Is there some difference between 10.3.9 and 10.4.7 that causes this different behavior? Any hints or suggestions would be most appreciated.
Thanks.

Answer 1

OK, I have finally solved the problem -- mostly.
The trick was to click on the Chooser option called "PSPrinter" -- not LaserWriter 8 or any of the others. I took a chance on that since I knew that the Ricoh 2600 was a PostScript printer. When I clicked on it, and chose "Set up printer," I was able to set up the Ricoh driver. Then, when I tried printing, it worked -- it printed within the Classic environment, not in Tiger. And what a difference!! Under Tiger, a simple page of text takes 45 seconds to process and print. Under Classic, the exact same page processes and prints in 8 seconds! A huge difference. So, I finally got it to work.
The downside is that I can't get it to "stick." If I restart Classic (or the entire computer), the next time I go back to print in MSWord 5.1a (my Classic application), it will have reverted back to the Tiger method of printing. So, the first time I print a page in 5.1a during any session, I have to go to Chooser and select PSPrinter. This adds 15 seconds or so to the process, so printing a single page overall isn't any faster, if you add up all the steps. Subsequent prints all are done quickly in Classic automatically, as long as Classic hasn't restarted. (I can even quit the application and restart it without a problem -- only an OS restart causes it to revert back to Tiger printing.)
So, my basic problem is solved, and I'm fairly satisfied. But I still have two nagging issues that I wouldn't mind answered if anybody knows the answers:
How can I make my Chooser printer selection in Classic "stick" permanently from one restart to the next? Why does it revert to Tiger printing after a restart?
And the fundamental question: why is Classic printing so much faster than Tiger printing? I thought Tiger was supposed to be a "digital hub" that made communicating with peripherals so easy? In most ways it is, but why is printing the one way in which OSX is WORSE than OS9, at least in regards to speed?