Memory Requirements

Processing images places great demands on both the CPU and memory.  The amount of memory required to process an image is directly proportional to the dimensions (paper size), the resolution (DPI) and the bit depth of the image.

As an example of the amount of memory involved, consider a standard letter sized (8.5" X 11") document printed in color (24 bit) at 600 dpi.  Before saving the generated image to a file, the entire image must first be loaded into memory.  The calculation of the amount of memory required is as follows:

memory required = (number of pixels in image ) X (number of  bytes per pixel )

The total number of pixels in an image is equal to

(resolution x image height) x (resolution x image width)

   Additionally, each pixel in a full color image uses 24 bits (3 bytes) to store color information.  Memory calculations for this image can be expressed as:

memory required = (8.5 X 600) X (11  X  600) X 3 = 100980000 bytes  = 96.3M 

At least 96 megabytes of RAM are required to store the generated image in memory.  If this much physical memory (RAM) is not available for the printing process, Windows will use virtual memory. The disk access (reading/writing) operations to and from the hard disk significantly slow down the entire process.

Although there are no minimum requirements for using the Black Ice Printer Drivers to process images, the following are the minimum requirements in order to achieve real-time processing of an 8.5" X 11" image in full color (24 bit, no swapping to disk).

Reducing the bit depth will also reduce the required amount of memory.  Creating an 8 bit image instead of a 24 bit image (still allowing color images) will reduce the amount of required memory:

If there is a lot of disk activity during the printing, and the process takes a long time to complete, the processing can be sped up in any of the following ways: 

1. Lower the resolution.

2. Set the bit depth to either 8 or 1 bit instead of 24 bit (full color). 

3. Decrease the paper size.

4. Add more RAM 

5. Disable Dithering

6. Disable Text output

7. Disable the messaging interface

If the generated image file is too large, you can try one of the following steps to decrease the size:

1. Lower the resolution.

2. Set the bit depth to either 8 or 1 bit instead of 24 bit (full color). 

3. Decrease the paper size.

4. Use a Dithering method