Slow Printing thru LPT

Typically, when you print to a network printer with a JetDirect card, you are spooling (creating a file on a hard drive) to a print queue on some server. Your computer dumps the file to the queue quickly and the server then feeds it out as quickly as the printer can handle it while your computer goes on to other things. With a local printer, you have to set up a spool area on your local hard drive where you send the file and let your computer handle the transfer to the printer as a backgroundprocess while you do other things. If you don't use spooling, your computer spends all its time looking at the printer until the job is done. Spooling setup in Windows is usually part of the printer driver. Go to your Printers folder in Settings and right-click on the local printer, then select Properties from the menu. Look at all the tabs for check boxes where you can enable spooling and, if there is that option, have it start printing in the background.