Multi-nozzle ink jet printer and method of printing

Apparatus for printing a line of dot matrix characters comprising,

• means for projecting plural streams of individual field controllable ink drops on parallel trajectories toward a print medium while effecting relative motion of said projecting means and said print medium,
• said streams being aligned in a single row extending in a direction transverse to said relative motion,
• said row of streams being slanted relative to the direction of relative motion,
• said streams having a relative spacing in said transverse direction corresponding to a plural dot stroke segment of a dot matrix stroke, and
• means for individually controlling said streams for printing their respective stroke segments to form character strokes including
• transducer means located proximate each of said streams for selectively removing individual ink drops from each of said streams for causing blanks at predetermined dot positions of said stroke segments,
• means for selectively operating said transducers for diverting predetermined drops from said parallel trajectories of said streams including
• means for simultaneously applying a sequence of signals to each of said transducer means,
• each said sequence of signals having a pattern corresponding with the dots pattern of the matrix segment printed from the corresponding stream, and
• means for delaying the application of certain of said sequences of signals to said transducers in accordance with relative spacing of said streams in said direction of relative motion, and
• means for deflecting unremoved ink drops in said streams to predetermined dot positions across the length of said stroke segments.