my canon pixma tr8620a is really slow printing color pages, like way slower than my old printer. is this broken?

Diagnosis

Your Canon PIXMA TR8620a is likely not broken; rather, you are experiencing the difference between "ISO print speeds" and "real-world rendering." The TR8620a uses a fine-nozzle inkjet system that must physically move the print head back and forth across the page. When printing a full-color image or a page with heavy saturation, the printer must perform multiple passes to layer the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black inks to achieve the correct hue and density. The perceived slowness usually stems from the "Print Quality" setting. If the printer is set to "High" or "Fine," the print head slows its travel speed and increases the number of passes per inch to prevent banding and ensure color accuracy. Additionally, if you are printing via Wi-Fi, the printer may be pausing between sections of the page to buffer the incoming data from the wireless spooler, creating a "stuttering" effect that makes the process feel significantly slower than a wired connection or an older, lower-resolution printer.

How to Fix It

To optimize the printing speed and reduce the time spent on color documents, follow these precise steps to adjust your driver and hardware settings:

1. On your computer, open the Control Panel and navigate to Devices and Printers.
2. Right-click the Canon TR8620a icon and select Printing Preferences.
3. Locate the Quick Setup tab. Under the Print Quality dropdown menu, change the setting from "High" or "Standard" to "Draft". This reduces the number of ink passes and significantly increases the pages-per-minute (PPM) output.
4. Go to the Main tab and ensure that "Grayscale Printing" is unchecked if you need color, but if the document has only minimal color, consider if grayscale is an option to speed up the process.
5. If printing from a Mac, go to Print > Print Settings and change the Quality slider to "Fast" or "Draft".
6. Click Apply and OK to save these settings as the default for future jobs.

If That Didn't Work

• Switch to a Wired Connection: If the printer pauses frequently during a color print, the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band may be congested. Connect the printer via a USB 2.0 cable directly to your PC. This eliminates the data buffering lag and ensures the print head moves continuously without waiting for the next chunk of image data.
• Update the Firmware: Outdated firmware can cause inefficient processing of complex PDF or image files. On the printer's touch screen, go to Settings > Device Settings > Firmware Update and select Update. This can optimize the internal rendering engine.
• Change Paper Type Settings: If the printer thinks you are using "Photo Paper" or "High Resolution Paper" while you are actually using plain 20lb bond paper, it will print much slower to allow for longer ink drying times. Ensure the paper setting is set strictly to "Plain Paper" in both the printer menu and the driver.
• Clear the Print Spooler: A bloated print queue can cause the printer to hesitate. On Windows, type services.msc in the start menu, find Print Spooler, right-click it, and select Restart. This clears the cache and can resolve erratic printing speeds.

Heads Up

• Ink Consumption: Using "Draft" mode not only increases speed but significantly reduces ink consumption, extending the life of your PGI-280 and CLI-281 cartridges.
• Drying Time: When printing in high-speed or draft mode, ink may take a few seconds longer to dry on the page. Avoid touching the print surface immediately to prevent smudging.
• Nozzle Maintenance: If you notice streaks while printing at higher speeds, run a Nozzle Check from the Maintenance menu to ensure the print head is not clogged, as partial clogs can sometimes cause the printer to "stutter" as it attempts to compensate for missing colors.