Dual technology printer

A dual technology printer comprising:

• a first print station having a polychromatic print engine;
• a second print station having a monochromatic print engine;
• and
• at least one guide roller having a position between and offset from said stations to provide a looped pathway for a media strip between said stations and thereby provide a length of media queued between said stations, said roller being movably mounted to permit the length of media queued between said stations to be varied by adjustment of said position of said roller;
• said print engines being operable asynchronously to allow said length of media to be queued prior to operation of said monochromatic print engine to print images on said length of media, to enable maximized throughput at said second print station.

A dual technology printer comprising:

• a first print station having a polychromatic print engine;
• a second print station having a monochromatic print engine with a predetermined pixel addressability and a resolution substantially equal to said addressability to produce sharp borders for machine readable symbologies;
• and
• a variable length pathway from said first print station to said second print station providing a queue between said stations including a variable length of a strip of media;
• said print engines being operable asynchronously to allow the length of media to be queued prior to operation of said monochromatic print engine to print images on the length of media, to enable maximized throughput at said second print station.

A method of printing a polychromatic image and a monochromatic machine readable symbology at a plurality of locations on a strip of media, comprising:

• providing a first print station having a polychromatic print engine, and a second print station having a monochromatic print engine with a predetermined pixel addressability and a resolution substantially equal to said addressability;
• at said first print station, operating said polychromatic print engine at a first print speed to print a polychromatic image at a plurality of locations on a strip of media;
• forming a queue of said media, including said locations, between said print stations;
• after forming said queue, moving media from said queue into said second print station, and, at said second print station, operating said monochromatic print engine at a second print speed, faster than said first print speed, to print a machine readable symbology on each said location moved into said second print station.