Yes.
The computer is running the print job in the background. Parts of the
printing process are CPU and others are disk-subsystem intensive. As these
occur, other tasks are starved of computing resources. This is especially
true using printers that use the Windows GDI/Windows rasteriser to produce
page images to be sent to the printer as graphics (ink jets, impact
dot-matrix, for example). Printers with generous memory of their own and
their own in-built rasterisers (Lasers, for example) are usually much
faster.
You can speed up the actual printing process by changing spooler settings to
send the job directly to the printer. However, the trade-off is that the
computer cannot multi-task until the print job is completed. So, printing is
faster but the computer does nothing else while printing.
Hope this helps.
Tom
MSMVP-DTS
