Host Based Language slows this Printer to a CRAWL

I bought this HP3600n printer as an upgrade from my worn-out HP2500. I immediately experienced a drastic drop in printing speed. The print language is HP JetReady 4.2, which is a host-based language. HP seems to have removed the processing power to reduce costs on these low-end printers and placed the burden on the users computer. I am running OSX 10.4.11 on a G4 PPC tower and printing to this printer is terrible. It takes 2 hours to print a 24-page document from InDesign and 9 minutes to print a 1 page Illustrator doc that contains only text. Also you surrender the computer while this processing takes place. It is like not having a print spooler function.

You also have to put up with the very light and contrasty color from the new toners. This can be tweaked out by cranking every color control from the panel ( plus two for all colors and all shades.) I suspect that the amount of toner used per page will correspondingly go up resulting in high consumable costs.

It was mistake on my part in buying this printer. The correct choice for a unit with comparable duty cycle and features but with a processor is the CP3505. Compare and contrast the two printers at HP web site and you will see that a lot of features are obtained for a small increase in price.

Thank goodness that Office Depot allowed me to return this printer.

Think long and hard before buying any model HP laser printer with host based processing.