Laser printer speed and spooling

Question

HP LaserJet P2055dn (and previously the 6MP).
Fine when printing simple text files from Word or Quark, but so slow when a file contains illustrations. The main time is in the spooling of the file; it took 15 minutes for one particular file to spool and then print the other day - and if you ask for, say, half-a-dozen copies, then it'll take 6 x 15 minutes to do so; irritating when you need 150 double-sided asap!
Someone suggested that the problem might be that OSX does not allow printing to start on a laser printer until spooling is completed; inkjets, by comparison, start churning out their work as soon as you hit enter. Is this true?
And is there any way of speeding up the process of printing on a laser printer?

Answer 1

Shaun Ferguson wrote:
Fine when printing simple text files from Word or Quark, but so slow when a file contains illustrations.
And is there any way of speeding up the process of printing on a laser printer?
The resolution of your illustrations make a tremendous difference. What format, i.e., jpg, tif, pdf etc? The resolution of the output also makes a difference. Before printing in Quark XPress, check the Device: PPD and Resolution; Color: Grayscale; Pictures: if your illustration documents are Tiff documents, try UNchecking the box next to Full Resolution Tiff Output. Also in the Pictures section: you might try changing the Output to Low Resolution.
Also consider if a firmware update might help. See HP LaserJet P2055dn Drivers and Software
Note: I have an old HP LaserJet 4MV with one-tenth of the memory of the LJ P2055 and the speed of the print outs and release of memory afterwards is fine (as a PostScript 2 device and especially in comparison with a Brother MFC that is 15 years younger and a 1-year-old Epson inkjet printer.)
HTH