Large spool file is created when printing Windows 10 UWP app

Some Windows users may experience problems when printing from the Modern UWP application creates a huge spool file when Advanced printing is selected or enabled. In today’s release, we will identify the cause and then provide a possible workaround for the problem where application printing creates a large spool file in Windows 10.

A Windows UWP application (aka Modere, Metro or Windows Store) is a type of application that runs on Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows RT, PCs and tablets. Unlike traditional (or classic) desktop apps, a UWP app has a single chrome-free window (that is, no outside frame) that fills the entire screen by default.

On Windows 10, modern apps can start in a window and, if not in full screen, tend to have a hamburger menu and a title at the top left.

Printing Windows 10 UWP App Creates Large Spool File

This problem occurs when you have a document open in a modern application that contains images and text on multiple pages, for example, a PDF file, and you try to print the file using a driver. PostScript or PCL6 printer. In the printer properties, you select the print function to include multiple pages per sheet.

In this scenario, when the print job is sent to the print queue, you may notice that the size of the print job is slightly larger than the file size.

WinPrint can perform various tasks with EMF tasks such as N-Up, printing of notebooks and assembly. Other custom print processors may offer more functionality. EMF requires more system resources because the print processor calls the GDI / Printer driver to convert GDI commands to printer language. If a queue on a server accepts only the RAW data type (in other words, the advanced printing functions are disabled), the conversion of GDI commands to PDL occurs on the client. The print processor is not invoked at all on the client, hence the loss of advanced functionality.

According to Microsoft, this problem is due to the expected behavior, because the queued data must be converted from XPS data to an enhanced metafile (EMF). This allows data to be converted by the GDI engine to Printer Definition Language (PDL) data that the printing device can then receive.

To work around this problem, Microsoft suggests that you limit the size of the spooled data – print the documents from a desktop application because no data conversion will be required for the printing device.

• Keywords: Printer, Windows applications