how do i speed up my printer?

[Robert Hall <rwhall@xxxxxxx>]

i am running mandrake 9.1. i use a canon bjc-4300 color bublejet printer.
when its printing i see a user 'lp' in top. and the following programs are
running(this is printing from mozilla firebird).
pstops,foomatic-rip,sh,gs,cat
this takes over 5 minutes to print a page. even when printing my resume
from xpdf its slow. i think it will print 3ppm. when i print from firebird
it says it uses lpr. what can i do to speed this up? is it just a slow
printer - do i need a new one. this printer was bought back in 98 and has
only seen its second black cartridge.

thanks for the help
rob