Abstract: Disclosed is a printing system having a raster image processing performance preflight option and an associated printing method. When the performance preflight option is selectively enabled, the printing system parses a print job to acquire data object statistics, performs preliminary raster image processing of the print job to generate preliminary raster pages, monitors the preliminary raster image processing to acquire performance statistics, determines (based on the performance statistics) whether or not the print job meets predefined specifications for raster image process timing and generates and displays a summary report. Page-specific selectable reports can be embedded in the summary report to allow a user to selectively view page-specific data object statistics and visual representations of specific preliminary raster pages. Such reports can be used to modify the print job in order to improve raster image processing timing prior to printing.