Mac compatibility with HP Printers

I have an HP OfficeJet 4680 and it takes FOREVER for a PDF file to print (like 3minutes/page). Word/Excel etc. documents print quickly. Anyone know how I can fix this?

NOTE: Thread moved to appropriate forum. Not just anything goes in Anything Goes

Does it also take "forever" to print normal word documents? Do you have the cd that usually comes with new printers?

idrinorbarsaku said:

Does it also take "forever" to print normal word documents? Do you have the cd that usually comes with new printers?

Click to expand...

No, it seems limited to PDF files from what I can tell by his first post.

I would recommend visiting HP's support site and seeing if there is an updated driver for that printer.

What kinds of PDFs are you printing? If they are scans of a page from another document, it is very possible that the "colour" of the page isn't white and the printer is printing the colour from the background.

For instance, if you scan a page from a book, the scan isn't a perfect black text on white background scan. You would notice that the background is not exactly white and because of this, the printer would be printing the "background colour" as well. If that's the case, the document will take much longer to print.

I hope that makes sense. It's hard to describe what I mean. If you want to see what I mean, scan a page from a book and look at the scan - the background will not be perfectly white and because of this, the printer would have to print that "background colour".

It could also be the complexity or length of the PDF document...especially if it has lots of charts, graphs, or photos in it.

Of course if the printer is slow with all documents (MS Word, MS Excel, etc.)...then there may be a compatibility, settings, or hardware setup issue.

- Nick

HP Printer

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like the problem (at least in part) has been a default setting to color rather than grayscale printing, for these documents.