Very-high-ratio mixed resolution and biphod pens for low-cost fast bidirectional one-pass incremental printing

Abstract

An incremental printer, such as for example an inker printer, produces very small markings (as for example by firing small ink droplets) preferably in a single-pass print mode for text, as well as image applications if desired, to achieve addressable print resolution at least four times higher in the carriage scan axis than in the media advance axis. More preferably the resolution in the scan axis is at least six times, ideally eight times, higher than that in the media advance axis. A preferred form of the invention uses 96 dots/mm (2400 dpi) resolution in the scan axis, in conjunction with only 12 dots/mm (300 dpi) resolution in the media advance axis, without having to employ any dot-depletion algorithms. In one embodiment, the system provides a single-pass color print mode wherein primary colors are printed with eight color droplets of the same primary color in eight adjacent sub-pixels on the 300×2400 grid, and secondary colors are printed with eight color droplets of different primary colors in eight adjacent subpixels on the same grid. One implementation uses a pen with a single tab-head assembly, with nozzles in plural parallel staggered columns, receiving ink from plural different ink reservoirs. Two such pens provide four inks for color inker printing. Three or more such pens enable a printing system to supply ink of plural dilutions for at least one of the ink colors in the system, and thereby facilitate photographic-quality printing.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.