Single pass electrostatic color printer/plotter having straight paper path

A single pass electrostatic color printer/plotter comprising:

• a frame having a media inlet and a media outlet;
• a media supply for providing a length of medium, having first and second generally parallel lateral edges, to the media inlet;
• a media driver at the media outlet for pulling the medium in a forward direction from the media inlet to the media outlet;
• and
• a printing assembly including a plurality of print stations mounted to the frame and positioned along a substantially straight media path between the media inlet and the media outlet, the print stations each including:
• an elongate electrostatic charging head, including a flat charging surface aligned with the media path, oriented generally perpendicular to the forward direction;
• a toner application assembly, downstream of the charging head, including an elongate rotatable toner roller with an axis generally perpendicular to the forward direction and having a circumferential surface generally tangent to the media path;
• a first roller, positioned directly opposite and parallel to the charging surface, for lightly biasing the medium against the charging surface of the charging head;
• and
• a second roller, positioned opposite the toner roller, for lightly biasing the medium against the charging head, the second roller having an axis parallel to but slightly upstream of the toner roller axis so to deflect the medium at the toner roller a selected deviation, the selected deviation being the maximum deviation along the media path, provide a deviation ratio, defined as the ratio of the maximum deviation of the medium to a quantity equal to L.div.(n-1), where L is the length of the media path and n is the number of the print stations, of at least about 1 to 23.