Electronic auto-correction of misaligned segmented printbars

An ink jet printer having a scanning printhead carriage moving in a scanning direction and a recording medium advanced substantially perpendicularly to the scanning direction of the scanning printhead carriage comprising:

• a printhead attached to the printhead carriage, said printhead including a linear array of ink ejecting nozzles arranged in banks of nozzles in which said nozzles within said banks eject ink simultaneously and said banks of said nozzles eject ink sequentially;
• printhead timing control means for controlling ejection of ink from said nozzles;
• a single point sensor, generating an output signal, attached to the printhead carriage;
• timing means coupled to said single point sensor for analyzing the generated output signal received from said single point sensor;
• and
• control means for determining a value based on the analyzed signal.

A method of adjusting printing alignment in a printer printing upon a recording medium advanced perpendicularly to a scanning printbar, scanning in a scanning direction, tilted at an angle with respect to the advancing direction of the recording medium and having banks of nozzles sequentially printing line segments, comprising the steps of:

• printing a first line and a second line on the recording medium, the second line partially overlapping the first line;
• sensing a distance between overlapping portions of the first line and the second line with a single point sensor;
• and
• adjusting a time delay period between the printing of the sequentially printed line segments of the printbar as a function of the sensed distance to adjust printing alignment.