Printing system and method to eliminate excess blank space between print positions

A printing system for controlling printing on roll paper using a printer having multiple nozzles disposed to a print head and distributed from an upper part of the print head to a lower part of the print head, the printing system comprising:

• a raster data generating module that generates raster data from processed image data, the raster data including multiple raster rows, each raster row being one row of raster data;
• a partial print data generating module that generates partial print data, each partial print data corresponding to one printing pass of the print head across the roll paper, each partial print data being generated by sequentially allocating raster rows corresponding nozzles starting from said upper part of the print head and proceeding toward said lower part of the print head until all raster rows have been fully allocated, and allocating blank raster rows consisting of blank raster data to nozzles following the last allocated raster row;
• a storage medium that stores the partial print data;
• a carriage assembly that moves the print head in a main scanning direction;
• a paper transportation mechanism that advances the roll paper in a sub-scanning direction;
• a controller that determines if the last partial print data to be printed contains blank raster rows, the controller being further configured to (i) calculate a distance determined from a difference between the total number of raster rows and blank raster rows in the last partial print data and the number of blank raster rows in the last partial print data, (ii) cause the last partial print data to be printed, (iii) control the paper transportation mechanism to advance the roll paper only the calculated distance, and (iv) execute operations (i)-(iii) if it is determined that the last partial print data to be printed contains blank raster rows;
• and
• a printer driver that issues a command to advance the roll paper as determined by the controller.