A tomography apparatus includes a multi-focal point x-ray source, a support to travel a trajectory path, a detector having a plurality of pixels, where one of the multi-focal point x-ray source, the detector, and an item-under-test move on the support. A control processor controls a change in the focal point of the x-ray source at discrete points, or continuously, within a measurement region, the focal point change in a direction retrograde to the support arm travel, a detector memory accumulates a digital value representative of a signal charge from at least a portion of the plurality of pixels, the control processor reconstructs a volumetric image of the item-under-test by processing the detector memory contents. A method for continuous tomosynthesis and a computer-readable medium are also disclosed.