General : Tips on improving reliability & performance. KB0007

Tips on improving reliability & performance

KB ARTICLE: KB0007
KB DATE: 22/01/2004
KB UPDATE DATE: 18/04/2004
REQUIRES VERSION: 1.00 or above

We've had a few reports of users improving reliability & performance by making a few small changes to the machine & software setup:-

1. Update to the latest version of Batch & Print Pro

2. When printing PDF's don't use full version of Acrobat use Acrobat Reader for printing, use the association setup in Batch & Print Pro to set your print association reader to print, i.e. Options Menu-->Setup Print PDF Association to Acrobat Reader

3. When printing PDF's using Acrobat Reader 5.1 is far more reliable, quicker starting up and generally better than 6.0, you can download Acrobat Reader 5.1 here: http://www.traction-software.co.uk/downloads/AcroReader51_ENU.exe
Note: if your documents are PDF 1.5 then we recommend you use Adobe Reader 6 which is available from http://www.adobe.com, to find out open a pdf in notepad and look at the first line. e.g. %PDF-1.4 is pre Acrobat 6.

4. If you get a print error whilst printing PDF's and are using a HP Printer make sure you're using the latest version of the printer driver, some old ones are not fully compatible with PDF and Acrobat.

5. Always use the Postscript version of your printer driver, this will improve performance & reduce print size.

6. Keep your filenames under 32 characters long, note: the file directory path can be any length.
pre Acrobat 6 chops the filename at 32 characters when printing (see spool queue), this can cause delays in Batch & Print Pro as it matches back to what's printing in the spool queue, this can cause problems when printing files when same first 32 characters are the same as previous files, this situation is best avoided by shortening the filenames.
e.g. 123456789012345678901234567890123.pdf will become 1234567890123456789012345678.pdf in the spool queue.

7. Update your machine Operating System to the latest service pack, we've had reports of Windows 2000 SP4 making small improvements in printing reliability & speed.