Faster monochrome printing for in-line electrophotographic color printers

An electrophotographic color printer comprising:

• a plurality of image transfer assemblies, each image transfer assembly arranged to apply a different color to a print medium and each image transfer assembly sequentially positioned along a print medium path;
• a print controller in communication with the image transfer assemblies,
• wherein one of the plurality of image transfer assemblies comprises a black image transfer assembly having at least N+1 light emitting sources and each of a remainder of the plurality of image transfer assemblies are color image transfer assemblies comprising N light emitting sources, wherein N is an integer greater than or equal to one,
• wherein the print controller is configured to communicate with each of the plurality of color image transfer assemblies using one of a plurality of color channels for a color print job;
• and
• wherein the print controller, for a monochrome print job, is configured to communicate with the black image transfer assembly using a monochrome channel and one of the plurality of color channels other than black.