Memory for LaserJet

[Peter]

I'm looking at the brother hl-2040, samsung ml-2010, hp 1020 and was
planning on getting the hp 1020 but it only has 2 megs of ram and the
others have 8 megs. How much memory is needed to print a page ? I
don't mind having it stay longer in the queue but if it has trouble
printing then I probably will go with one of the others.

Thanks,
Pete

 

[Don Phillipson]

I'm looking at the brother hl-2040, samsung ml-2010, hp 1020 and was
planning on getting the hp 1020 but it only has 2 megs of ram and the
others have 8 megs. How much memory is needed to print a page ? I

This depends on your operating system, software
(including spool settings) and hardware (RAM). I.e.
what one machine may need to spool from the hard
drive may be held by another all in RAM during printing.

 

[Peter]

I'm using XP Home & the computer has 370megs ram and print most of my
documents from a acrobat pdf. I just paused my printer to see how
large the files were in the print queue and one was a 3 page document
at 14.6megs. So I don't think a printer with only 2 megs ram is going
to handle that document.

Pete

 

[Tony]

I'm using XP Home & the computer has 370megs ram and print most of my
documents from a acrobat pdf. I just paused my printer to see how
large the files were in the print queue and one was a 3 page document
at 14.6megs. So I don't think a printer with only 2 megs ram is going
to handle that document.

Pete

Pete
The printer only needs enough memory for each page, not for the whole document.
Each page is sent individually to the printer and the printer memory is updated
when the page has been printed. Also there are some compression techniques used
by many laser printer drivers that reduce the effective amount of memory
needed. I am not sure how much effect this has.
Of course this only applies to laser printers, not inkjets (for the benefit of
anybody else reading this with a similar query).
Tony

 

[Lou]

Pete
The printer only needs enough memory for each page, not for the whole document.
Each page is sent individually to the printer and the printer memory is updated
when the page has been printed. Also there are some compression techniques used
by many laser printer drivers that reduce the effective amount of memory
needed. I am not sure how much effect this has.
Of course this only applies to laser printers, not inkjets (for the benefit of
anybody else reading this with a similar query).
Tony

Why doen't it apply to inkjets?

Lou

 

[me]

Why doen't it apply to inkjets?

The laser prints the whole page in one go, so must load the whole page
into memory, but the inkjet more or less prints one line at a time.

The largest single page I've produce was about 50/60 meg, however that
was a colour A3 (11" x 17") image.

My HP IIIP has 1.5 meg and does wimp out on more complex documents, so I
doubt 2 meg is a sufficient comfort zone.