Star Micronics 4111 manual Hints Managing memory

The process of downloading a font you’ve designed yourself is not so straightforward. As you can only do this, creating and downloading fonts is described further in chapter 4.

3.4.8 Hints: Managing memory

. Printing fancy stuff can be quite cumbersome for your printer. You trade off fanciness against speed: if you opt for fewer flourishes, you give your printer breathing room in memory. And that rewards you with faster output. Any of the following will slow down your laser printer:

-text over 20 points,

-lots of lines or patterns,

-graphics,

-macros,

-justified text.

. You may choose to add an optional RAM board to your Star LaserPrinter 4111if you need to download many fonts.

. Alternatively, consider either a software or hardware print spooler if printing holds up your computer more than you’d like. A spooler provides a separate temporary memory space that holds the documents to be printed, and is particularly handy in a multi-user system.

●Some page makeup programs automatically download each font as needed, then flush that font from printer memory to make room for the next font. This approach can make good sense if you’re sharing your printer with other people in a computer network. It keeps the printer’s RAM from becoming overloaded. However, the downloading time can significantly slow down your printer’s throughput.

. More typically, you will download a font in the morning (perhaps with the MS-DOS COPY command) before you print your first document, and that font will then stay in the printer’s memory. If you use a single downloaded font (or macro) throughout the day, you will find it most efficient to keep it in the laser printer’s memory. You definitely should download fonts this way if you use a print spooler. If you’re in a network, however, make sure you don’t download duplicate fonts.

. How many downloadable fonts can you have in one document? That’s not so easy to answer. Most of your laser printer’s memory is not available for storing fonts, because it has to store each page before printing it, as well as any macros or overlays you are using.

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