TPC Technote
Hewlett Packard Plotters & GDI+
TPC Desktop V6.5 and later all
use Microsoft .NET technology which Windows XP is built on. .NET
provides WYSIWYG graphics and device independent plotting so that
what you plot out on your HP plotter looks exactly like it does on
your computer screen.
However, you may notice an
increase in the time it takes TPC Desktop to plot a D-size
(24"X36") drawing with large text paragraphs in Landscape mode on your HP
DesignJet Plotter. Drawings
can take 5 to 8 minutes to spool to the plotter. We can reproduce
these times on our HP DesignJet 500 plotter. Other drawing
sizes and orientation spool much faster, usually less than 1
minute. Our tests on non HP devices indicate that this is an
HP driver issue.
Traverse PC contacted both HP and
Microsoft about the slower plot times. Microsoft was aware of the
issue
and passed our request for faster plotting on to their .NET design
team in September '04.
HP recently posted a new driver
for the HP DesignJet 500 (V6.03.00 dated 10/4/2004) that improves
the plot time. We tested this driver with the following results:
1) With Images set, plot
time was 1 min 24 sec verses 8 min with Drawings/Text set.
It appears that Images is the preferred setting.
2) With Images and Fast
set, plot time was 23 sec. Use this setting for all but your final
plot to save both time and ink.
Note that we conducted our tests using a DesignJet 500. The driver
interface for your model of DesignJet plotter may be different from what
you see here but there should be similar functionality.Also note that
HP is updating their drivers frequently. You need to check their
website at http://www.hp.com regularly
and make sure you are using the most recent driver for your plotter.
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