A printing system for printing an image swath by swath according to image data that is provided to an image memory buffer in raster format. The printing system includes a carriage that moves a printhead with a plurality of columnar marking elements based on input provided by an encoder and a printer controller for reformatting the image data and controlling the marking elements. The printer controller includes a direct memory access controller for extracting the data from the image memory buffer and rotating the data from raster format to column format, a plurality of stroke buffers for receiving image data in column format from the direct memory access controller, an encoder control portion for providing stroke firing strobes based on input from the encoder, and a printhead driver control portion for generating data requests from the stroke buffers based on input provided by the encoder and to provide signals necessary to cause the marking elements to print according to the timing of the stroke firing strobes.