Fix Slow Printing Issues: Troubleshooting Tips for a Frustrated User

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around troubleshooting slow printing issues experienced by a user when printing PDF files from Firefox. The scope includes technical explanations, user experiences, and suggestions for alternative approaches to printing.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses frustration with slow printing times from Firefox, suggesting that the computer becomes unresponsive during the process.
  • Another participant speculates that the issue may relate to the PDF plugin in Firefox, noting that downloading the PDF and opening it in Adobe Acrobat may yield faster results.
  • A participant mentions a common practice from school advising against printing directly from web browsers, hinting at potential system clogging without providing specific reasons.
  • There is a suggestion that the printing process might involve back-and-forth communication between the printer driver and the web page, which could contribute to delays.
  • Links to external resources, including a video and alternative PDF readers, are provided as potential solutions to the problem.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the exact cause of the slow printing issues, with multiple competing views and suggestions presented throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Some assumptions about the functionality of PDF plugins and browser behavior are present, but these are not fully explored or resolved within the discussion.

Pengwuino
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Slow, stupid computer/printer face!

So I has a question to AXE. I swear, whenever I try to print a .pdf file that opens in firefox, it takes FOREVER. The printers are on a wireless network but I swear to all that is holy and good that it takes like 5-10 minutes to print. Oh and that's not time between it starts and finishes, that's the time that the computer is basically frozen and out of commission because firefox hangs on the progress bar of the printing job. Once its finished, the printer immediately prints it.

Oh I said I have a question... well, WHAT THE HELL?

DISCUSS!

Seriously, what in the world causes this? Why is, I assume, my computer taking 3x10^384 calculations and 300TB of memory to print my 7 page document? DO I NEED TO SLAP SOMEONE?
 
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I'm not sure why it happens, but it might be something to do with the pdf plugin on firefox. I've noticed on firefox and IE that it's actually quicker to download a pdf and then display it in adobe acrobat than to try and open it in the browser itself. There may be some sort of translation process, but then again, this was for pdf's in the 2MB and larger range. The translation process probably has to happen again to send the pdf from firefox into "printer format".
 


have you tried rebooting? ;-)

seriously though, that was a very funny rant and brightened up my lunchtime considerably
 


At school we were always told never to print from explorer pages because it clogs up the system, but never given a reason. If you download the file and print it from the reader, do you get much faster results?

You know when you scroll down, the page still loads on Firefox? That implies that when you print there may be some sort of back-and-forth communication between your printer driver and the actual web page as the information is not fully downloaded before it is sent to be printed...
 


Download and open in Adobe Acrobat or Reader (whichever you have) and print from that.
 

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