摘要 |
A swath printer and printing method using multiple printmodes per swath to improve printing time for print data that contains a mix of monochrome regions such as text, and color regions such as photographic images. Monochrome regions typically can be printed with a given print quality level using a fewer number of scans or passes over the area than can color regions. Throughput can be improved by identifying color and monochrome regions of each swath, and switching printmodes when printing these different areas of the swath. Because reversing direction at region boundaries in the middle of a swath can adversely affect printing throughput, the ratio of the size of monochrome regions to color regions is analyzed to ensure that throughput will be improved before enabling multiple printmode per swath mode. A number of different combinations of monochrome printmodes and color printmodes can be advantageously implemented.
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