You may want to try using image magick to convert the pdfs into flat PNG files (convert the file, then flatten it so you don't have the alpha channel). Since png uses lossless compression, you may get away with a smaller resolution (no artefacts beyond the jpeg compression already used in the pdf). You also may be able to use gutenprint to handle the printing side - use the printer configuration in gimp to see if your printer is listed.

Try printing the png files one after the other - see if the behaviour of the printer is different. (Technically it should be tied up only for each page instead of waiting for 28 of them.) This is not practical for production - but there are other ways to put all the pages one at a time into the print queue. This is just a test.

I hear you about printers - I worked for PC World NZ when they migrated (from mac to PC) and ran into similar troubles. They ended up setting their print-runs overnight - which is a bummer when something goes wrong. They used an outside printing service for production runs.

How are you generating pdfs in the first place? I don't think Adobe Acrobat runs under gnu/linux. The large files may be clumsy in OpenOffice.org - requiring you split the document. LaTeX may be too rigid for what you want to produce.

I still think your short-term solution is to use a windows print server. The long term solution is to replace hardware - which the company plans to do sometime anyway. Pre-processing would be a middle-term workaround and will not produce performance that you've been used to. The printer just has to get a particular amount of information.

If I have this right:
The problem is that the printer has to wait to receive all the file before it starts printing right? It doesn't actually take longer to print once the file is sent?

I suspect the windows driver just sends compressed files to the printer, which it decompresses itself for printing. It could be that the printer starts printing before all the file is received... and the filesize reported in windows print queue is not the actual size of the job.

See - that's what happens for me when I have a big print job ... the printer starts up after the first few pages have been sent, or when the printers buffer has filled.

These are the experts - you'd be well advised to contact them. I gather there is a postscript addon for cups which is not always installed by default - this could streamline things.

There is a mamoth tutorial here which is useful for understanding how printing works - the older one, from the same page, is more technical.

[update]404 - oh dear, the older one is still there. I'd complain if I were you.

Hey Simon,

Thanks again for your help. You've been wonderful. :) I'll get in contact with the folks over at the Open Printing forums and see what light they can shed on the subject. I'll also give your last few suggestions a try. If I find a solution to the issue, I'll be sure to return here and post the answer.

Hi,
I've been trying to make a Dell 5110cn printer to work from Linux, to no avail.
I've tried sharing the printer from both a Linux and a Windows machine, and in either case, Windows clients can always print fine.
When a Linux client sends a print job that's larger than a few hundred KBs, the printer chokes and prints pages with what appear to be PostScript errors.
Can anyone help me with solving the problem.

Adan, It would be best if you started a new thread in the forums for your question as this topic is different. :)

Head over here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ux-software-2/ and click on the "New Thread" button near the top of the page.

socceroos: There is a postscript module for your printer - has that been installed?
If it hasn't then it won't handle postscript very well.

adan: welcome to LQ. I know we encourage you to post to an existing thread, and you also have a problem printing "large" files - though about 3-6 orders of magnitude smaller than the large files in this thread. (your are in kilobytes, ours are in 100s of megabytes) Since there does not seem to be anyone asking about your printer in LQ before (an unusual occurance), you will get best exposure by starting a new thread with the name of the printer and the name of your distribution as the title.

In the body, you'll need to say how you are trying to get it working and what you mean when you say it does not. Also include the extent to which it is working - eg. can you print a problem file from a linux machine directly connected to the printer?

Be aware though: your printer does not appear to be supported by Free Software drivers, so it is not really surprising if it does not work well with linux. It may be that you will just be told to contact DELL customer support. FWIW.

When you start you thread - please link to it from here, then I'll go have a proper look.