Some Windows users might be experiencing issues when printing from Modern UWP App creates a huge spool file when Advanced Printing feature is selected or enabled. In today’s post, we will identify the cause and then provide a possible workaround to the issue where app printing creates a large spool file in Windows.
A Windows UWP app (aka Modern, Metro, or Microsoft Store app) is a type of application that runs on Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows RT, PCs and tablets. Unlike traditional Desktop (or classic) apps, a UWP app has a single, chromeless (i.e., no outside frame) window that fills the entire screen by default.
On Windows, UWP apps can start in a window, and if not full screen, tend to have a hamburger menu and a title in the upper left.
Printing of Windows UWP app creates a large spool file
This issue occurs when you have a document open in a Modern App that contains images and text on multiple pages, for example, a PDF file and you try to print the file by using a PostScript or PCL6-based printer driver. You select the print feature within the printer properties to include more than one page per sheet.
In this scenario,, when the print job is sent to the print queue, you may notice that the print job size is somewhat larger than the file size.
WinPrint can do various things with EMF jobs such as N-Up, Booklet printing, and Collation. Other custom print processors may provide more features. EMF requires more system resources because the print processor invokes the GDI/Printer driver to convert from GDI commands to the printer language. If a queue on a server accepts only RAW data type (in other words, the advanced printing features are disabled), then the conversion from GDI commands to PDL happens on the client. The print processor is not invoked on the client, hence the loss of advanced features.
According to Microsoft, this issue is expected behavior as the spooled data has to be converted from XPS data to an Enhanced MetaFile (EMF). This is so that data can be converted by the GDI engine into the Printer Definition Language (PDL) data which the print device can then receive.
To work around this issue, Microsoft suggests that you limit the size of the spooled data and print the documents from a desktop application, as no data conversion will be required for the print device.
