[warwickwater]

I have a (demo version) psRemote set up to take 4 pics default size onto an A4 sheet - the area covered by images is approx half the page. The cam is a Canon S5, with pics size set to 'medium'.

The problem I am having is that the spool file sent to the (Xerox, high end, colour laser) printer is around 100Mbytes in size, so its taking the printer (rated at 30 pages per min) a good 3-4 mins to 'think' before it prints.

A page of 4 images sent from (for example) Picassa at 300dpi produces a file of more like 15Mbytes, which prints much quicker - maybe 20 secs to think.

Is PSRemote not downsampling the images before spooling them to print, or is something else going on? I'm keen to work it out before I spend £800 on a decent dye sub and find I have the same problem.

Any info, experiences or observations most welcome. I'd be keen not to take tiny tiny pics on the cam in the first place as I'd like to retain the option to sell reprints afterwards to the keenest punters.

[Chris Breeze]

What it does is interrogate the printer to determine the page size in pixels then creates a bitmap that size and resizes each image to fit the bitmap. Once the layout has been assembled on the bitmap the bitmap is set to the printer and/or saved as a JPEG file depending on the output settings. The size of the bitmap depends on the page size and the printer resolution setting. You can check the size by setting the output to JPEG only, take a test shot and then examine the saved JPEG.

[warwickwater]

Thanks for the reply Chris - but the technique does seem a little inefficient.

The page for test purposes is an A4, with the printer 600dpi, so if my maths is correct, 12x8 inches (roughly) at 600x600 dpi, at 24 bits per pixel is almost exactly the 100Mbyte spool file size I am seeing, and experiencing the horrendously slow print processing time.

If I look at the composite image produced by PS Remote its a 1.4Mbyte Jpeg, with dimensions of 4758 x 6817 (so correct dimensions for the 12x8 paper). About a meg and a half seems like a much more reasonable file size, and the printer thinks so too - printing from Picassa or just a right click in Windows is lightning fast!

The issue seems to be that PSRemote is sending a huge native uncompressed bitmap, but that 'most other things' send the JPEG and let the printer rasterise it as it sees fit. Quality of output looks identical to me, so no issues there.

Am I wrong, or have I missed the point somewhere? Couldnt / shouldnt PSRemote generate the JPG and send that?

Thanks once again in advance, information much appreciated before I spend 'real' money on my 'real' printer!

[Chris Breeze]

PSRemote needs to assemble the finished layout to one large bitmap to ensure everything goes in the right place. Once it has done that it asks the graphics library to print the bitmap and doesn't really have any control over how the library actually sends the data to the printer.

[warwickwater]

From the observations about the speed of other applications printing of jpg files, maybe you could evaluate the speed increase of getting your app to write out a jpg from your uncompressed bitmap and print that - it would seem that would be much faster.

Im just concerned about blowing $1000+ on a high speed dye sub to impress the punters, then finding the system still needs 1-2 mins thinking time before it spits out the pic.

In real life usage (say a Canon S5 and a Mitsy dye sub), can you really go from last photo taken to start of print in say sub 10 secs?

[snapshot]

Im just concerned about blowing $1000+ on a high speed dye sub to impress the punters, then finding the system still needs 1-2 mins thinking time before it spits out the pic.

In real life usage (say a Canon S5 and a Mitsy dye sub), can you really go from last photo taken to start of print in say sub 10 secs?


I use a G9 and a UP-CX1, and while I've never timed it, it can't take more then 10 seconds after the final picture is taken before the printing begins. Therefore, less then 30 seconds after someone leaves the booth, their photo is done.

[warwickwater]

This is on a 6x4 print I assume ?

[snapshot]

This is on a 6x4 print I assume ?

That's correct.

[chuckb]

I find the same thing on 5x7 paper Sony upcx1.