A printer comprises a processor and a printhead. The processor comprises an address, data and control bus; an expander unit and a decoder unit each coupled to the bus and configured respectively to decompress a bi-level black layer and a contone layer of a page to be printed; and a halftoner/compositor unit which is coupled to the bus, and is configured to halftone the decompressed contone layer to form a bi-level cyan, yellow, magenta, and black (CYMK) layer and then composite the decompressed bi-level black layer over the bi-level CYMK layer to form a bi-level CYMK image of the page to be printed The printhead is interfaced to the processor and comprises a plurality of nozzles grouped in pods, the nozzles of a pod sharing a common ink reservoir.