Abstract:
The present case concerns various techniques for increasing the printing rate of an ink jet printing apparatus. As one example, drops not required for printing, that is, drop intervals, are skipped. This reduces the time required to form individual characters. Another technique modifies the normal generation of drops which is sequential in a column by column fashion and instead imposes non-sequential drop generation and deflection thereby reducing drop merging and splatter that otherwise might occur.
Abstract:
An ink jet printing apparatus is described having facilities for printing information in character locations, (boxes) each character location comprising a plurality of vertical columns of drop locations, and a number of characters comprising a line of information. Structures and circuits are included for insuring correct location of information within the character boxes and also providing for one mode in which characters are printed continuously line-by-line and another mode in which characters are printed incrementally character-by-character. During incremental printing, as well as the first character in a line or group of characters, provision is made for re-bounding the printhead back into the box of the character just printed, that is, prior to the next character box to be printed to insure that when the printhead starts up again for the next character that all drop components for that character, including any located in the immediate vicinity of the character boundary, are properly placed during printing.
Abstract:
A font selection system is provided that is useful in conjunction with ink jet printing apparatus. Facilities are included for storing data representative of one or more fonts or character sets and for selecting these on a font basis or a character basis during printing operations.