It sometimes takes several minutes to prepare a print file

[ajbjr]

I cannot seem to find a pattern.  Often I print a PDF and it goes quickly but 20% of the time I print a file and it takes minutes to grind through to print.  It doesn't seem to be related to document size.  Single page documents can go slowly as likely as larger documents.  It is quite frustrating to wait 3 or 5 minutes for a document to print.

[Stephen Marsh]

Perhaps these “slow files” contain transparency and require flattening during printing, when “fast files” are already flattened with no transparency.

[ajbjr]

I am not familiar with the concept of flattening but I have watched this for several months and the types of files that run slow are very diverse and don't appear to have any special complexity.  With the last big update I usually get a window (after the file opens) that says something like preparing the file with a progress bar the walks through page by page and can take quite a while.  But the printing doesn't seem to be held hostage to this window when it is fast and the window is slow.

[Stephen Marsh]

You do have Acrobat Pro, right?

Tools > Print Production > Flattener Preview (preview settings, highlight transparent objects)

or

Tools > Print Production > Preflight: Check - Transparency Used

[ajbjr]

NO, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC - and it is still happening about one in five print jobs.

[Stephen Marsh]

Do you see a progress bar reporting “flattening” when printing?

Short of having access to a file that prints “fast” and one that prints “slow” it is going to be hard to make further comment.

[ajbjr]

OK, I'll isolate examples and provide.

[ajbjr]

Well, I identified a couple of sample files but they are PDF and when attempting to insert/attach them I'm told thet that file type if forbidden.  Is there another way to do it?

[Abambo]

If you want to show us sample files, load them to dropbox or similar and share the link.

[ajbjr]

This is the link for the fast file - Dropbox - 2016_05_16_HomeDepot_Dublin.pdf

This is the link for the slow file - Dropbox - 2016_05_16_HomeDepot_Dublin.pdf

Thanks for you help.  If you find a difference I'm curious because this never happened to me until the new updated version many months ago.

[ajbjr]

Oops, Im new at this, I just noticed it is the same link.  The slow file is  - Dropbox - FFCluster_Manager's_Payroll_PaidTimeOff.pdf

[Stephen Marsh]

Both files are  “flat” with no transparency (so this is not a transparency flattening issue in these two cases).

The “fast” file is more complex than the “slow” file.

Using Acrobat Reader, the slow file printed in approx. 1-2 seconds, by that I mean that the print dialog box disappeared… Then it took around 18 seconds to spool and for the printer to output the paper (wi-fi multi-function laser printer).

The “fast” job was about the same, in total about 24 seconds.

[Luke Jennings]

Your computer and printer are secretly married, and sometimes they argue about whose turn it is.

Printing pdf is very slow

[Stephen Marsh]

The PDF files need to be shared via a file sharing service, such as DropBox, WeTransfer etc.