Some slowness is normal, such as a laser printer warming up or an inkjet pausing to let two-sided pages dry. But if a one-page letter takes minutes to start, or pages trickle out with long gaps between them, something is adding unnecessary delay. The cause can sit on the computer, the network or the printer itself, so this guide checks each in turn, beginning with settings you can change in seconds.
What you might be seeing
- A long pause before the first page starts
- Long gaps between pages of the same document
- Photo-heavy files or large PDFs crawl while plain text is fine
- The queue shows Spooling for a long time
Common causes
- High-quality or quiet settings
- Best quality, photo paper and quiet modes slow the print engine on purpose.
- Very large print files
- High-resolution images and complex PDFs make huge jobs that take time to process and send.
- Weak Wi-Fi connection
- A printer at the edge of Wi-Fi range receives data slowly and pauses waiting for more.
- Slow port or spooler settings
- A WSD network port, or a spooler set to wait for the whole job, adds delay.
- Normal printer behavior
- Warm-up, drying pauses in two-sided printing and slowing down on long runs are by design.
How to fix it, step by step
Work through these in order and test a print after each one. Most people are done within the first few steps.
Check the quality and quiet mode settings
In your app's print dialog, open Printer properties or Preferences and check the quality setting. Best or photo modes print far slower than Standard or Normal, and Draft is quicker still. Set the paper type to plain paper, since photo paper settings also slow things down. Some printers have a quiet mode in their settings menu or the manufacturer's app that trades speed for less noise.
Test with a simple document
Open Notepad, type a line of text and print it. If it comes out promptly, the printer and connection are fine, and the slowness belongs to particular files. Large photos, scanned PDFs and image-heavy documents create print jobs many times bigger than the file itself. Reducing image resolution, printing fewer pages at a time or exporting to a smaller PDF can make a big difference.
Change when Windows starts sending the job
Open the printer in Printers & scanners, choose Printer properties and go to the Advanced tab. Make sure Spool print documents so program finishes printing faster is selected, with Start printing immediately chosen underneath it. The alternative waits until the whole document has been processed, which adds a long delay before the first page of a big file. Click OK and print again.
Improve the Wi-Fi signal
Print a network configuration or wireless test report from the printer's control panel, which usually shows signal strength. If it's weak, move the printer closer to the router or away from metal furniture and appliances. Restarting a router that has run for weeks can also help. If the printer has an Ethernet port and the router is nearby, a cable removes Wi-Fi from the equation entirely.
Switch from a WSD port to a standard TCP/IP port
Many network printers are added through WSD, a discovery method that can be slow to respond. In Printer properties, open the Ports tab and see which port is ticked. If it starts with WSD, click Add Port, choose Standard TCP/IP Port, click New Port and enter the printer's IP address from its network report. Finish the wizard, make sure the new port is ticked, and click Apply.
TipReserve the printer's IP address in your router's settings so the new port keeps working after the router restarts.
Update or change the driver
An outdated driver can process jobs inefficiently, particularly after a Windows upgrade. Check Settings › Windows Update for optional driver updates, or download the current driver from the manufacturer's official website. If you use the basic built-in driver and print lots of graphics, the full manufacturer driver may handle them faster, and occasionally the reverse is true, so it's worth comparing both with the same document.
Allow for normal slowdowns
Not every delay is a fault. Laser printers warm up after sleep, so the first page is always slower. Inkjets slow down during long jobs to protect the printhead and pause between sides in two-sided printing so the ink can dry. If speed matters more than saving paper on a large job, print it single-sided, and consider a longer sleep timer if waiting for the first page bothers you.
How to keep it from happening again
- Use Standard or Draft quality for everyday documents
- Keep the printer within good Wi-Fi range or use a cable
- Reserve the printer's IP address in your router
- Shrink large images before printing them
Common questions
Why is the first page slow but the rest fast?
That's usually warm-up or processing time. Laser printers heat the fuser after sleep, and the computer may need time to prepare a job with images. Once the job is flowing, later pages arrive at full speed. A longer sleep timer or smaller files shorten that first wait.
Is USB faster than Wi-Fi?
For large files, a USB or Ethernet cable is usually more consistent because it doesn't depend on signal strength or other network traffic. For ordinary documents on good Wi-Fi, the difference is small. If wireless printing is slow but USB is quick, the network is the bottleneck, not the printer.
Does printing in color slow things down?
On many printers, color has a lower rated speed than black, and photo-quality color is slower again. Printing in grayscale when color isn't needed can speed things up slightly and saves color ink or toner. The quality setting usually has a bigger effect than color alone, so adjust that first.
This guide is general information written for common home and office printers. Menus and button names vary between models, so check your printer’s manual where a step differs. Printer Problems Solved is independent and not affiliated with any printer manufacturer. See our disclaimer.