Mid plot refill technique for large scale printers

A method of pausing and resuming printing operations using an on-carriage printhead in a printer having a movable carriage mounting the print cartridge, the carriage movable across a print area along a swath direction in a sequence of swaths each constituting one or more passes of the carriage across the print area to print rows of image pixels constituting an image, and wherein relative movement is provided between the print medium and the carriage in a direction transverse to the swath direction and wherein the printer supports printing on a plurality of different media types, the method comprising a sequence of the following steps:

• determining a pause row location at which printing is to be paused;
• selecting a first pause/resume mode or a second pause/resume mode in dependence on a set of printing parameters;
• pausing printing at said pause row location in accordance with said selected one of said first pause/resume mode or said second pause/resume mode;
• resuming printing after a time interval in accordance with said selected one of said first pause/resume mode or said second pause resume mode.

A method of conducting a refill operation in an on-carriage printhead in a printer having a movable carriage mounting the print cartridge, the carriage movable across a print area in a sequence of passes to print a plot image, the printer including an off-carriage ink supply available for intermittent connection to the internal reservoir of the printhead for the refill operation, and a controller for determining whether a refill operation needs to be performed during the printing of the plot image and the appropriate location in the plot for which the printing should be interrupted, and wherein the printer supports printing on a plurality of different types of print media, the method comprising the following steps:

• completing a pass of the carriage across the print area;
• moving the carriage to a refill station;
• conducting a refill operation to replenish an ink supply within the internal reservoir, the length of the refill operation and the amount of ink transferred to the internal reservoir during the refill operation dependent on the type of print media on which the image plot is being printed;
• and
• resuming printing of the image plot.

A method of pausing and resuming printing operations using an on-carriage printhead in a printer having a movable carriage mounting the print cartridge, the carriage movable across a print area along a swath direction in a sequence of swaths each constituting one or more passes of the carriage across the print area to print rows of image pixels constituting an image, and wherein relative movement is provided between the print medium and the carriage in a direction transverse to the swath direction, the printer supporting printing on a plurality of media types, the method comprising the following steps:

• determining a pause row location at which printing is to be paused;
• completing the printing of all rows and all pixels from commencement of printing through said row location, and wherein no pixels in rows immediately following said row location are printed, wherein printing is completed on the image through said row location, and the print medium is free of any printing following said row location;
• pausing said printing for a time interval selected in dependence on said media type, wherein a long time interval is selected for a first media type and a short time interval is selected for a second media type;
• conducting a refill operation during said pausing to transfer ink from an auxiliary ink supply to said printhead;
• resuming said printing at a resume row location immediately following said pause row location to print only rows following said pause row, wherein wet ink is not applied to locations printed prior to said pausing.

A method of pausing and resuming printing operations with a swath printer having a movable carriage mounting a printhead including an array of print nozzles, the carriage movable across a print area along a swath direction in a sequence of swaths each constituting one or more passes of the carriage across the print area to print rows of image pixels, the printer supports printing on a plurality of media types, the method comprising:

• commencing printing in a multi-pass print mode wherein the rows constituting a swath are printed during a plurality of passes in an interleaved manner;
• determining a pause row location at which printing is to be paused;
• completing the printing of all rows and all pixels from said commencement of printing through said row location, and wherein no pixels in rows immediately following said row location are printed;
• pausing said printing for a time interval, said time interval selected in dependence on said media type, wherein a long time interval is selected for a first media type and a short time interval is selected for a second media type;
• and
• resuming said printing at a resume row location immediately following said pause row location to print only rows following said pause row, wherein wet ink is not applied to locations printed prior to said pausing.

A method of pausing and resuming printing operations with a swath printer having a movable carriage mounting a printhead including an array of print nozzles, the carriage movable across a print area along a swath direction in a sequence of swaths each constituting one or more passes of the carriage across the print area to print rows of image pixels, the method comprising:

• commencing printing in a multi-pass print mode wherein the rows constituting a swath are printed during a plurality of passes in an interleaved manner;
• determining a pause row location at which printing is to be paused;
• changing from said multi-pass print mode to a refill print mode different from said multi-pass print mode to complete the printing of all rows and all pixels from said commencement of printing through said row location, and wherein no pixels in rows immediately following said row location are printed;
• pausing said printing for a time interval;
• and
• resuming said printing at a resume row location immediately following said pause row location to print only rows following said pause row.