Patent ID: 8226217

Claim:
A method of forming a liquid pattern of print drops impinging a receiving medium according to liquid pattern data using a liquid drop emitter that emits a plurality of continuous streams of liquid from a plurality of nozzles arranged into n groups; where n is an integer greater than 1 and less than 10 and the nozzles of each group are interleaved with nozzles of each other group such that a nozzle of each other group lies between adjacent nozzles of any given group and the nozzles are disposed along a nozzle array direction, each of the continuous streams of liquid are broken into a plurality of drops having a first and second size drop by a corresponding plurality of drop forming transducers to which a corresponding plurality of drop forming energy pulses are applied, the method comprising: (a) forming drops of a first size by applying drop forming energy pulses during a unit time period, τ 0 , (b) forming drops of a second size by applying drop forming energy pulses during a second drop time period, τ m , wherein the second drop time period is a multiple, m, of the unit time period, τ m =m*τ 0 , and m≧2; (c) providing timing between drops for printing consecutive pixels is equal to τ i =a*τ 0 , where a is an integer≧m and is a function of print media speed; (d) forming the corresponding plurality of drop forming energy pulses sequences so as to form non-print drops and print drops according to the liquid pattern data; (e) delaying the timing of the pulses for the drop forming energy pulses sent to the drop forming transducers of group number g relative to the drop forming energy pulses sent to the transducers of a first group by a delay time τ L , where an approximate value of τ L =g*(INT(a/n)+1/n)*τ 0 where g is a specific group of interest which starts a zero for the first group.