Importance

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Abstract

An ink jet printer is configured in a hybrid architecture wherein a full width printbar is combined with a partial width color scanning assembly to provide the capability of selectively printing in black only or, alternately, into producing color prints by operating the color scanning assembly exclusively. The cost of the hybrid system, when compared to a full width color system using four full width printbars, is greatly reduced. The partial width scanning assembly is mounted on a carriage which is stepped along a printing swath width, the sum of the incremental scan steps equaling the width of a full width printbar. A dimensional mismatch between the printbar and the scanning printhead in the direction perpendicular to paper motion (width direction) could result in image degradation because of misalignment of color drops to black drops. The mismatch could result in manufacturing errors in either the printhead width and/or the width of the carriage. It is proposed to identify the total mismatch as a distance .DELTA.l prior to print operation and to adjust the incremental steps of carriage scan motion so as to change each incremental step by .DELTA.l divided by the number of steps. Thus, the mismatch is effectively spread over the entire print swath and does not become visually perceptible in the output image.

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First Claim