Printer Tips

These printer and cartridge refilling tips are reprinted from our sponsor's web site.   We hope you find them to be useful.

Don't Let the Cartridge Dry Out.

The number one refilling problem is waiting too long to refill your cartridge. If you run out of ink, leave your cartridge in the printer. Don't let your cartridge dry out.   Inside just about all inkjet cartridges with a built-in print head (HP,Lexmark), there is a foam sponge. When the cartridge runs out of ink, the sponge may dry up and go hard,especially when the cartridge is removed from the printer. Once the sponge has hardened the cartridge is "done for". Even if you refill the cartridge before the sponge becomes useless, dried ink can clog the microscopic holes (jets) in the print head.   It's always better to refill the cartridge before it runs dry. Topping off the cartridge every 200-300 sheets ensures that the cartridge always has ink in it to stop the sponge from drying out, and preventing you from running out of ink in the middle of a job.   The printhead of an ink jet cartridge can reach temperatures of 500 degrees centigrade (932 degress fahrenheit) and the ink itslef serves as a coolant, so allowing the cartridge to run dry can destroy the printhead.

If you are out of refill ink supplies and want to preserve, your cartridge for future refilling, wrap your cartridge in a slightly moist paper towel or cloth and seal it in tightly a plastic baggie. Remember to get as much air out of the baggie as possible. This will buy you time to get resupplied.

Note:   If you've refilled a cartridge and find that it's clogged up and won't print, there is something you can try before discarding it.   Place the printhead of the cartridge (just the nozzles where the ink comes out) in a small bowl containing roughly a half cup of very hot water and hold it there for five minutes.   In some cases this will dissolve the dried ink that's obstructing the nozzles, and, if it works, you should see a little ink bleeding from the printhead into the water. This procedure can be repeated two or three times if you wish.   Once it looks as though the nozzles have been unclogged, you should gently wipe off the entire cartridge, especially the copper electrical contacts, with alcohol on a soft, lint-free cloth, insert the cartridge into your printer, and run it's printhead cleaning cycle (consult your printer's manual if necessary) before you try printing.   If this doesn't fix it, you should discard the cartridge but you may wish to recover the ink from it first.

All Printers Require Good Preventive Maintenance.
The number one complaint about poor print quality, specifically streaking print, white lines through the print, or no print at all, can be avoided by frequent use of your printer.   These print problems are caused by ink drying up in the print head or nozzles, clogging them and preventing ink from reaching the paper. If you don't use your printer regularly you can help keep it in working order by printing a test page or running a printhead cleaning cycle once a week.   Consult your printer's manual for additional, or more specific preventative maintanence tips.

Power Down Properly.
Always use your printer's power switch rather than the switch on a surge protector to shut the unit down. Most ink jet printers have a print head parking function that's triggered by the printer's own power switch. This ensures that your cartridges are 'sealed' properly and not exposed to the drying effects of ambient air.

Keep The Print Head Clean.
Care needs to be taken to ensure that the print head is kept clean in order to stop ink clogging in the print head. Some printers (Hewlett Packard for example) don't do a very thorough job of cleaning the print head when you run their normal cleaning cycle. Deposits of ink can build up on the print head, causing the cartridge to function poorly. You can help circumvent this problem by occasionally cleaning the print head with a soft cotton cloth or Q-tip (don't use tissues and be gentle) dipped in water. Snap the cartridge in and out a couple times to get a good connection after cleaning. Keeping the print head clean will result in a maximum number of successful refills. You can also purchase Inkjet Printer Cleaning Kits to aid you in this.

Preventing "Color Mixing" When Refilling.
When refilling a three color (or more) cartridge, there is a chance that you can have the cartridge turned the wrong way and get the colors on the ends backwards. In other words, you might put the magenta ink in the cyan chamber. To avoid this from happening and ruining your cartridge: use three tooth picks and insert one of them into each fill hole, deep enough to pick up some ink. Mark the cartridge with a marker or piece of tape to help you remember which chamber is which color. Pretty simple and helpful. (Thanks Sharon.)

Warning When refilling color cartridges, be sure to follow the instructions provided with your refill kit very carefully.   Some manufacturers (I hate to be redundant, but, HP for example) may have misleading information attached to the cartridge.

Do Not Run Back-to-Back Cleaning Cycles. (this applies to all printers)

Give the cartridge a chance to let some ink flow in between cleaning cycles. This will purge air bubbles or foamy ink that a cleaning cycle may have created.   Print a test page or a color balanced image. If the printing quality hasn't improved, run another cleaning cycle and test it again. Repeat the process as often as needed.

Purge the Cartridge.
Purging the cartridge regularly is one of the most important steps in ensuring a long cartridge life. The purging cycle is not the same as the cleaning cycle. If you don't know how to do this, read your printer manual, It's all in there. The purge cycle consists of a process that heats all the jets in the cartridge and then cleans them from the inside out. All purge cycles produce a grid which consists of vertical and horizontal lines which represent all the jets in the cartridge.

Prevent Printhead Burnout (HP and Lexmark cartridge types).
One of the most common causes of printer cartridge failure is printhead burnout.   When the   command is given for an inkjet nozzle to "print" many things happen; ink has been brought to the "firing chamber" by a combination of gravity, capillary action, and vacuum caused by the last firing. The circuitry applies current to the heating resistor which rapidly heats the ink in the chamber, causing it to expand. This quick expansion forces ink to shoot through the printhead nozzle onto the paper.   There are over 200 of these microscopic expansion chambers on the end of a typical printer cartridge.   The ink which flows through them also serves to cool them off. The resistor which heats the ink achieves very high temperatures and without the cooling action of the ink, the printhead very rapidly begins to deteriorate. Printing even part of a page with no ink in the cartridge can permanently damage the printhead. Most printers will warn you of a low cartridge before it completely runs out of ink.   At the first sign of low ink, refill your cartridge to ensure a long refillable life.

Late model printers may offer an "ink level gauge".   Be aware that these software "gauges" are not accurate measures of the ink level in the cartridge and should not be trusted.   For this reason we suggest that you top off your cartridges on a regular basis. If you know that you use a cartridge every 2 months, refill every month. Place a sticky note on your printer to remind you when to next refill. If you rely on your printer ink level gauge, be sure to refill before the 'out of ink indicator' pops up.   Note:   if you have ink left over don't worry, it'll keep.

Pressure Equalization.
When some cartridges (HP 51626A and 51629A for example) are refilled the cartridge many require time to reestablish internal equilibrium.   Some may require you to re-pressurize them with a plastic squeeze bottle while others require only time to stabilize before being inserted into the printer. While Epson cartridges are normally "good to go" within an hour, they sometimes require as many as twenty four hours to stabilize. It is good idea to stand the cartridge on some newspaper to equalize (don't let the 'nozzle tip' or ink outlet touch the paper or the ink can 'wick out', draining the cartridge.).   Your ink supplier (Maxpatch Ink Supplies, our sponsor, is an excellent choice!) should have specially designed Epson printer refill kits which provide for refilling through the outlet hole on the bottom of the tank rather than filling through a hole in the top. This superior refilling method greatly reduces the amount of foaming (bubbles) within the tank.

Common Problems with New and Compatible Epson Cartridges.
Sometimes a brand new cartridge from Epson or one of our compatibles may appear to not be working properly. There are four (4) potential reasons for this.

1) There may not be a pool of ink at the exit port (the pre-chamber) that the built-in print head can suck from. The solution to this is the "Centrifugal Force" tip below.

2) The vent grooves to one or more chambers (on color tanks) may be blocked by adhesive. The adhesive from the tear away seal or the name plate sticker may have blocked up a vent groove. If air can't get into the cartridge, the ink will not flow. The solution to this is a straight pin. Use a straight pin to puncture the name plate foil and vent the cartridge. If you run your finger nail across the foil, you will find there is a hole under the foil for each chamber. This is where to stick the pin through the foil. After making the pin holes in each chamber, run a few cleaning cycles to reestablish solid ink in the head.

3) Printer stops printing after a few pages (or many) have printed. *After refilling your cartridge your printer "thinks" the "original" cartridge is empty. Simply unplug the printer and wait a couple of minutes before plugging it in again. This Should "clear" the memory so the printer recognizes your refilled cartridge as "full".

4)   If the cartridge has been stored in a dry environment for an undue length of time, or the humidity has simply been very low during the period while the carridge was stored, dried ink may have caused a total, or partial, obstruction of the printhead.   In this instance, contact a reliable ink supplier (like Maxpatch Ink Supplies), where Epson cleaning cartridges and/or cleaning solution kits are available.

Resetting The Epson 'Chip Cartridges'.
Epson created a 'chip' for their 777, 870 and 1270 cartridges that, in effect, stops the cartridge from printing when the ink level has fallen to around 15% (meaning there's still ink in it).   Think about that a minute.   The only good reason I can think of to stop using the cartridge, while there's still a little ink in it, would be to avoid having it dry out while it's being shipped off for refilling.   If you're doing your own refilling, you'd refill it right away so you wouldn't have to worry about having it dry out, wouldn't you?   Makes it look like Epson is, or was, planning to set up a mail in cartridge refilling program doesn't it?   Of course that's just idle speculation on my part and, whether or not it's true, you can "fool" the cartridge into using the rest of it's ink with this workaround.

With the printer turned off and unplugged (for safety) open the top smoke cover. Using a dull butter knife, lay the butter knife flat on the silver flat track, with the cutting edge facing away from you. Slide it under the ink cartridges carrier.

*If you look closely, you should see a small lever which comes up whenever the printer stops printing. The lever to which we are referring is just 'left' of the printhead assembly. This lever can be moved forward and down easily either with your finger or gently with the dull butter knife. (If you can't see the lever, then print a page with the top open. Watch for a lever that goes down when it starts printing and then goes up after it has stopped).

Then with your right hand gently push the printhead/cartridge assembly to the 'right'. It will only move a fraction of an inch, but you should hear a click. This is a second lock being released. The printhead assembly should now easily move to the left towards the center of the printer.

Now, put pressure on the cartridge carrier to slide it to the 'left'. *Move the knife forward and back until you feel the cartridge carrier freely slide to the left. Remove the knife, slide the carrier to the center, remove cartridges and reinstall, then slide the carrier all the way to the right. Plug in power and hit power button, after its done doing its 'dance' it should be reset to full and you're ready to go.

Elimination of Air Pockets Using Centrifugal Force
Some of the sponge filled cartridges can develop air pockets at the bottom of the cartridge that can block the flow of ink. HP color cartridges and Epson Stylus Color cartridges are best know for this problem. The solution is centrifugal force.

Wrap the cartridge in a towel or cloth. Place the cloth wrapped cartridge in a plastic bag, (a plastic "grocery" bag is good). Hold it in your hand with the head or exit ports pointing down. Extend your arm and swing the cartridge down towards the floor rapidly, sorta like you were going to throw it. Repeat a couple of times. Then remove the cloth wrapping. There should be a visible spot of ink from each of the chambers. If not, do it again. **   Note:   Epson 400/600/800/1520 series cartridges must have a pool of ink at the exit port to work properly.

Epson - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

How do I install my new cartridge?
Remove the yellow tape seal or plastic red tab from the ink cartridge you are going to install. Do not remove the tape or plastic caps covering the holes at bottom of cartridge. Do not remove the white label from the top of the ink cartridge. The ink in a cartridge missing the white label will be exposed to air and will thicken such that print head clogging and possible print head failure can occur. If the white label has been removed from the ink cartridge, the cartridge will not function correctly and it will need to be replaced. More importantly, to avoid potential damage to the printer, do not install the cartridge if the white label has been removed. If the black ink out light is flashing or solid, hold the black cleaning button until the print heads move to the left, and then install the black ink cartridge. If the color ink out light is flashing or solid, hold the color cleaning button until the print heads move to the left, and then install the color ink cartridge. After installing the cartridge, press the load/eject button to begin charging the ink delivery system.

The quality of my printed output is unacceptable. What can I do?
Verify that you are using the correct printer driver for your printer model. Make sure that the printer's paper adjust lever is set to 0 for regular paper and + for envelopes or thicker media. If MicroWeave is off, turn this feature on. If High Speed is on, turn it off. Make sure the Media Type setting matches the paper or media loaded. Also, the Halftoning and Color Adjustment Mode options may be set incorrectly for your document type.

Let the printer driver automatically select the settings for the best quality. The paper you are using may be damaged, old, dirty or loaded incorrectly. Remove the paper and reload a new stack ensuring that the printable side is face up. If your output is faint, check the printer driver to make sure you have selected a print resolution other than Economy.

For vertical banding, rough or grainy images run the Print Head Alignment utility to align the print heads for precise vertical lines. If the image does not contain the colors you expected, the color settings on your application software may need adjustment. Refer to your software documentation for help on adjusting colors.

If the previous steps do not resolve the issue, the print head nozzles may be clogged (this is very common with Epson printers). From the Utility section found in the Epson printer driver, clean the print heads by performing a head cleaning followed by printing a nozzle check pattern. A head cleaning and nozzle check must be performed as a cycle. After printing a nozzle check, examine the printed dot pattern. Each staggered horizontal and straight vertical line should be complete, with no gaps in the dot pattern. If there are gaps in the dot pattern, continue with another cycle. Performing up to four cleaning cycles is not uncommon if the print heads are severly clogged.

Note:   Don't run more than four cleaning cycles.   If the problem isn't solved after four cycles your best bet is to purchase a commercially available Epson printer cleaning cartridge or cleaning kit.

If the nozzle check prints completely, and you're still experiencing a problem, make sure you are using the most current version of the printer driver. You can obtain the latest printer driver from the Epson web site. The resolution of your image may also be set too low. Increase the image resolution using your image-editing software, or decrease the size of the image.

Another troubleshooting test to try is moving the printer to another computer. This will eliminate the possibility of a defective printer cable, parallel port, or software issue.

My printouts are missing color and/or black print. How can I fix this?
If the printer is printing blank pages, make sure you are using the correct printer driver and make sure the paper size is correctly selected in the driver. If the printer is printing black only, the Ink option in the printer driver may be set to Black instead of Color or a setting in the software may be set to print black only.

Canon FAQ's

Why don't the colors displayed on the monitor match the printed colors?
Because your monitor and printer use different technologies to represent colors, your printed colors cannot exactly match the colors you see on your monitor screen. Try using the ICM (Windows 95or 98) or ColorSync (Macintosh) setting. Refer to your User's Guide for more information.

The quality of my printed output is unacceptable. What can I do to improve this?
Verify that you are using the correct printer driver for your printer model. Let the printer driver automatically select the settings for the best quality. The paper you are using may be damaged, old, dirty or loaded incorrectly. Remove the paper and reload a new stack ensuring that the printable side is face up. Run the head cleaning utility. Perform up to 4 cycles if necessary. The resolution of your image may also be set too low. Increase the image resolution using your image-editing software, or decrease the size of the image. Another troubleshooting test to try is moving the printer to another computer. This will eliminate the possibility of a defective printer cable, parallel port, or software issue.

My printouts are missing color and/or black print. How can I fix this?
If the printer is printing blank pages, make sure you are using the correct printer driver and make sure the paper size is correctly selected in the driver. If the printer is printing black only, the Ink option in the printer driver may be set to Black instead of Color or a setting in the software may be set to print black only.

Also, the print head nozzles may be clogged. Run a head cleaning cycle, up to six times if needed, or contact your ink supplier and purchase a Canon print head cleaning cartridge.
For Printers which use the BCI21-B, BCI21-C or BCI21-E cartridges, replacing the BCI21E printhead and cartridge assembly is necessary after replacing the ink tanks a number of times (usually only after 4-5 tanks.). Over time the print head will wear out and must be replaced in order to continue producing acceptable print outs.

The printed output is broken up and/or has white streaks running through it. What's up?
The print head nozzles may be clogged. Run a head cleaning cycle and print a test print. If there are gaps in the dot pattern, continue with another cycle. Repeat up to six cycles if needed.

To prevent drying and possibly clogging of the printhead, it is recommended you print something in color once a week. Try this if the color print is 'light' or missing in spots:

Unplug the printer from the computer. Then locate the 'resume' button which is the button on the top right, push it until you hear 1 beep, do that 6-10 times, this shoots out some ink to clear the 'clogs'. Then plug the printer back up and try the print again.

If the printer is printing in streaks and 'smearing'; follow this procedure to remove any excess ink from the printer carriage area:
1. Open printer so the cartridges move to center of the carriage.
2. Remove all cartridges.
3. Fold a letter size piece of paper in half, and then in half again the other way so it is quartered.
4. Start with the long, folded edge and insert into front of printer where paper normally feeds out. (it will slip in a little over halfway)
5. Move the paper left and right to remove any excess ink under the carriage. When the excess ink is removed the printer should print streak-free.

Avoiding A Mess
When you are refilling an ink cartridge, you should do it over some newspapers, or better, an old rag or shirt. Cloth will soak up any excess ink immediately and is easier to clean up. Quality refill kits are designed to minimize this (so buy the good ones). Once you get used to refilling, a mess will no longer be an issue.

Cleaning Up
The first time you refill a cartridge, you might get a little ink on your hands. To get the ink off, use a mild bleach and water solution then wash with soap and water.

More Tips....
Printer Ink Characteristics: (All inks are not created equal.)

When purchasing printer cartridge refill kits, as with any other product, the best price doesn't always result in the best quality.   Check out the company's customer service, warranty, and return policies before you buy anything from them.   For example, I've been using Jet Packs from Maxpatch Ink Supplies because they're about a third the price of new cartridges and they've worked everytime, but one.   Not long ago I installed a rebuilt color cartridge I'd gotten back from Jetpack, and it didn't work properly.   The Jetpack cartridges have a six month (180 day) warranty, but I sent the empty cartridge off as soon as I removed it from the printer and waited until the cartridge in the printer was empty before installing the Jetpack cartridge.   Unfortunately, it had been some seven months since I sent the cartridge off, so the rebuilt cartridge was out of warranty and I had no recourse but to purchase a new cartridge.   This was a "user" error on my part.   In the future, I won't send Jetpack an empty cartridge until I get a low ink warning from my printer.   That way, the returned cartridge will still be in warranty when I plug it into the printer.   I finally got brave enough to try refilling my own black ink cartridges and found it was quite easy to do, and refill kits cost less than half the price of Jetpacks, so I'll refill my own black ink cartridges from now on.   Color cartridges are, by all accounts, more troublesome, and I don't do very much color printing so I'll continue to use the Jetpacks, with the aforementioned proviso, for color cartridges.

Color Cartridges (with print heads)
Most color cartridges retain the ink using sponges. We have found that if you slowly squeeze the ink into the sponge that you will get a better refill (just follow the illustrated refill instructions) and you'll do just fine.

The best time to refill any color cartridge with a print head (HP, Lexmark, Compaq) is when it is half empty. Lexmark, Compaq and some Xerox show how much ink is in the cartridge through their on screen software. After you refill the cartridge and are installing it back into your printer it will usually ask you if this is a new cartridge. Indicate yes and the ink level will usually return to full.

Lexmark, Compaq (with print heads & sponge)
These cartridges are some of the easiest to refill. They are very simple and easy when you follow the instructions. You can purchase a Lexmark printer for as little as fifty bucks. How can they make any money?   You'll find out when you buy your first cartridge. Retail price for the color cartridge can cost almost as much as the whole printer did.

Miscellaneous Info
How Does My Inkjet Cartridge Work?
A cartridge contains a print head (the metallic-looking portion of the cartridge), nozzles, and circuitry. All are housed within the cartridge itself. The print head, nozzles, and circuitry perform most of the work when printing.

Nozzles (where the ink comes out): Cartridges can contain between 48 and 320 microscopic holes which are smaller than a human hair and connect to a heater or resistor which heats and cools the ink inside the cartridge. When the ink is heated, a bubble forms. When the heat is removed, the bubble bursts sending dots of ink through the nozzles and onto the page. The dots form the characters on the page at a rate of about 6000 drops per second.

When your cartridge wears out it is actually the heaters that are "burning" out. Most cartridges can be refilled at least three times before the printhead is worn out and many can be refilled five or more times, especially if you don't allow them to run dry before refilling them.

Troubleshooting Printing Problems In Windows 95/98/ME  A very helpful article from Microsoft.

Printer Drivers:
Check your printer manufacturer's Web site to verify that you have the latest print driver. Having the latest printer drivers installed will greatly improve your printer's performance. Maxpatch Ink Supplies (our sponsor) has a nice page of driver links.

Other Tips....
Starch is used as a binder in the production of paper. It is the use of a starch coating that controls ink penetration when printing. Cheaper papers do not use as much starch, this is why your elbows get black when you are leaning over your morning paper.

Stick to plain paper when you're not generating high- quality color images. Most inkjets make fewer passes when printing on uncoated stock.

We recommend   Paper2U.com (not an affiliate link) as a good, high quality source for all varieties of paper.

Use "draft" or "economy" mode when top quality isn't needed. Doing so shouldn't degrade text quality much, and it may even produce results which are good enough for all but the final versions of your jobs.

Turn off resource-hungry halftoning, color-matching, and image-enhancement options when you don't need them.

If you notice smeared printing the "wiper blade" inside the printer carriage (cartridge holder) might just be dirty. Wipe it off with a damp paper towel. This will usually fix the smearing problem.

One sure rule is that all ink jet cartridges will eventually wear out. They don't ever seem to wear out at the same time that your cartridge runs out of ink, proving that Murphy's Law is still alive and well. Even if you're concientious and careful about refilling, you'll have to buy a new cartridge occasionally.

Printing Short Cut
Say you're in a big hurry to print a saved file. Finding and firing up the originating program (your word processor, for example) and, in turn, calling up the file, navigating to the program's print function and working through the print dialogue box can seem to take forever when seconds count. By taking advantage of Windows 95/98's shortcuts, you can let your computer do all the work. Here's how:

Click on the Start button, go to the Settings menu and choose Printers. Single-click on the printer of your choice, to highlight it. Right-click the highlighted printer and select Create Shortcut. Windows will tell you it can't create the shortcut here and ask if you want it placed on your desktop. Say Yes. Then whenever you want to print in a hurry, just highlight the file you wish to output and drag it onto the printer shortcut on your desktop. Windows will look up the program, open the file and start outputting right away.

Add Your Printer to "SendTo" Menu
Print documents without opening them by adding your printer to the Win9x 'SendTo' menu (accessed when you highlight and right-click on any file in a Windows Explorer or My Computer window). Create a desktop shortcut to your printer (as outlined above), minimize any open windows (so you can see the desktop), use Windows Explorer to open C:\WINDOWS\SENDTO, resize the Windows Explorer window, so you can see both the printer shortcut on the desktop and the blank space beneath the SendTo list, in the right hand pane of Windows Explorer.   Drag and drop the printer shortcut from the desktop to the bottom of the SendTo list in Windows Explorer.   That's it. Your printer will now appear the next time you access the 'SendTo' menu.

Change the Printing Order
When you have a number of documents in your printing pipeline, you can rearrange the print queue (except for the document currently being printed). Choose Start/Settings/Printers and double- click on the printer whose queue you want to manage. The "printer queue" with all the print jobs listed appears. If you want to cancel or pause the printing of any of the documents you have sent, click the document, and then use the commands on the Document menu.

Save Paper In MS Word 2000
If you want to create a reference copy of a long document, why not print several pages on a single sheet of paper? Here's how: Open the document in Word 2000 and select 'File', 'Print', just as you normally do. When the Print dialog box appears, drop down the 'Pages per sheet' in the bottom right corner, choose 4 pages, then click 'OK'. Your document will print with four pages on each sheet.

Two Printers In One. - 'Trick' Windows
If you frequently use different printer settings when using your printer, such as black and white drafts versus color documents, you've no doubt found out it is a real pain in the 'backside' to change these settings each time you print.

Why not 'trick' Windows into thinking you have two different printers? "Install" the same printer twice, then set the Properties for each to match your most commonly used settings. From then on, the only setting change you'll have to make is selecting the printer you want to use.

Here's How: To "install" your printer again, select Start, Settings, Printers and click Add Printer. Be sure to give this "second" printer an appropriate name, such as "Color Printer ".

When the installation is complete, you'll see two different printer icons in the Printers window, you can adjust their properties accordingly. Then just right-click on the printer icons and create a shortcut to your desktop. ** You can also drag and drop documents to be printed onto the shortcut for 'instant' printing.

Speed Up Your Printer's Output and Save Money.
You can trick an ink jet into speeding up, and save a few bucks in the process: Turn off the color. Yep, it's that simple. See, unless color is crucial for your document, you're wasting ink and slowing down the printer if you output in color.

Test it... Print a color page, then print it again in gray-scale. To do this, go to Start, Settings, Printers and right-click on the printer's icon. Go to Properties and find the tab that lets you change from color to gray-scale. Now, print the page again. The file I tested took more than 2 minutes to print in color; the gray-scale version took only 35 seconds. When you do need color, simply change the settings back.

Improve Your Printing Speed.
Windows defaults to spooling print jobs. The Print Spooler is a background program that writes data to temporary files in your C:\Windows\Temp directory. Although this lets you perform other tasks while you print, it does slow printing.

On most printers, you can turn off the spooler by going to Start > Settings > Printers. Right-click on the icon of the printer you're using. Click Properties and select the Details tab. Click on the Spool Settings button at the bottom of the dialog box. Select the "Print Directly to Printer" option. This will tie up your application until the printer has all the data, but your print job should finish more quickly. Printing directly to the printer will also come in handy if your print spooler crashes and you need to print before you reboot your PC.