[Digikam-users] Printing issue

[David Aldred]

Setup: AD64-2800 PC (though running 32-bit Mandriva 2005LE Linux), HP Deskjet 
940c printer, Digikam 0.7.2.   

Sitting on the desk alongside, a WinXP 586-366 machine, with HP Photosmart 
installed, printing through CUPS on the Linux machine.

I had 28 pictures to print, 4 per page.   Started the process 'in bulk' with 
Digikam Print Wizard, and after about 25 minutes with the Print Wizard itself 
running, and over an hour with no physical output, killed the print job.

Tried a single 4-up page from Digikam.  About 7 minutes of the Print Wizard 
'generating print data' a 122Mb job turned up in the KDE print manager.  gs 
(Ghostscript, I assume) then took over: 10 minutes of gs using 95-100% of 
processor capacity (according to top).   Finally the printer starts to do 
something.  

Tried another way: ftp the pics over to the WinXP machine, and use the HP 
software.   Within 2 minutes of hitting 'print' a 31Mb job turned up in KDE 
print manager - about 1/4 the size.  The quality was also higher: the HP 
software claims 2400x1200 resolution, and is certainly finer than the Linux 
output.

Is there anything I can do on the Linux machine to make things happen faster - 
and ideally to generate higher quality output?

- 
David Aldred