You could use a small table to improve your speed. Similar techniques are useful in the embedded world, for example, to invert a byte:
***const char *bit_rep[16] = {
[ 0] = "0000", [ 1] = "0001", [ 2] = "0010", [ 3] = "0011",
[ 4] = "0100", [ 5] = "0101", [ 6] = "0110", [ 7] = "0111",
[ 8] = "1000", [ 9] = "1001", [10] = "1010", [11] = "1011",
[12] = "1100", [13] = "1101", [14] = "1110", [15] = "1111",
};
void print_byte(uint8_t byte)
{
printf("%s%s", bit_rep[byte >> 4], bit_rep[byte & 0x0F]);
}***