System and method to compensate for an inoperative inkjet in an inkjet printer

A printer comprising:

• an image processor configured to identify at least one pixel in image data that corresponds to an inoperative inkjet in a printhead, to identify at least one metric for a portion of the image data that corresponds to one or more inkjets positioned to compensate for the inoperative inkjet, to select a corrective operation from a plurality of corrective operations, which includes an elimination of pixels corrective operation comprised of eliminating the at least one pixel and another pixel corresponding to an operable inkjet and at least one other corrective operation different than the elimination of pixels corrective operation, in response to the at least one metric being greater than a predetermined threshold, and to apply the selected corrective operation to the image data;
• and
• a controller configured to generate firing signals to operate the one or more inkjets positioned to compensate for the inoperative inkjet with reference to the image data to which the image processor has applied the selected corrective operation.