A printer pool allows user to direct a print run to several printers so they share the printing load, and to set the "switching interval".
The switching interval is the minimum number of letters the system prints to one printer before it switches to the next printer in the pool.
The switch from one printer to the next always be at changes of sort key and when the switching interval has been exceeded.
The recommended switching interval is about 10. If the switching interval is too low, the system wastes time switching printers. If the switching interval is set too high, the benefits of using more than one printer are reduced as only one printer tends to be printing at any point in time. The objective is to fill a printer’s memory and then switch to the next one, so that each printer is kept busy.
There are two panels within the screen:
The printer pool names and switch intervals
The printers in a pool
Note –
As user does not know which printer a particular letter is printed on, all the printers must be loaded with the same kind of stationary.
If user uses a sort (via Letter Pack) then the letters are in that sequence on each printer. But user can not combine the outputs from several printers unless he manually "merge" them together. So keep the output from each printer separate, and give each separately to the postal service.
If the output from a sorted print run must be all sorted together then use 1 printer.