Continuous inkjet printing system and method for producing selective deflection of droplets formed from two different break off lengths

A continuous inkjet system for selectively depositing liquid droplets upon a surface, the system comprising:

• a liquid chamber including a nozzle, the liquid chamber containing liquid under pressure sufficient to produce the liquid jet through the nozzle;
• a stimulation device operatively associated with the liquid jet, the stimulation device being operable to produce a modulation in the liquid jet having a wavelength λ and causing a first liquid droplet to break off from the liquid jet and travel along a path and causing a second liquid droplet to break off from the liquid jet and travel along the path, the first liquid droplet having a first break off length, the second liquid droplet having a second break off length longer than the first break off length, the first break off length and the second break off length having a difference of at least one wavelength λ in response to stimulation pulses received from a stimulation controller;
• a deflection mechanism including a charge electrode associated with the path, the charge electrode being operable to produce a charge differential between the first liquid droplet and the second liquid droplet, and the deflection mechanism being operable to cause trajectories of the first liquid droplet and the second liquid droplet to diverge so that a trajectory of one droplet of the first and second liquid droplets causes the one droplet to be directed for collection and prevented from depositing on the surface and a trajectory of the other droplet of said first and liquid droplets causes the other droplet to be directed for depositing on the surface;
• and
• a stimulation controller that provides drive signals to the stimulation device in response to image data such that stimulation device produces the modulation in the liquid jet, the stimulation device identifying a transition in droplet creation between a stimulation cycle that is to produce a droplet having a second break off length and a stimulation cycle that is to produce a droplet having a first break off length and introducing a skip cycle between the stimulation cycle that is to produce the droplet having a second break off length and the stimulation cycle that is to produce the droplet having the first break off length.