1. A computer-implemented method, said method comprising: computing via a processor a linear equation for an expansion process based on at least one measured compression statistic that relates to profile data within a compressed file associated with a rendering job during assembly of said compressed file, by executing a program instruction in a data-processing system comprising said processor; and summing via a processor results associated with said linear equation in order to predict an expansion difficulty and an expansion time required to perform at least one print-time imaging operation to thereby improve performance and efficiency of a raster image processor in real-time, by executing a program instruction in a data-processing system comprising said processor, wherein said linear equation comprises coefficients, wherein said coefficients utilized in said linear equation are generated by a linear regression analysis with respect to a set of experimental data.