Patent ID: 7347521

Claim:
A printing device comprising: at least one print head for image-wise forming dots of a marking substance at a printing pitch P on an image-receiving member in relation to a pattern of image pixels, said print head comprising a plurality of N discharging elements being arranged in at least one linear array, being spaced at a predetermined element pitch, and being composed of at least a first group of discharging elements which, in operation, image-wise form dots of a marking substance of a first size and a second group of discharging elements which, in operation, image-wise form dots of a marking substance of a second size different from said first size, on said image-receiving member; displacement means for displacing said image-receiving member in the sub scanning direction; selecting means for selecting a print mask defining a number of S printing stages required to completely render said pattern of image pixels, S being an integer number of at least 2; and control means for controlling said displacement means and for controlling said plurality of N discharging elements; wherein in operation, to limit the visibility of systematic banding artifacts in the sub scanning direction, on the basis of the difference between said first size and said second size, said control means controls said displacement means such that said image receiving member is displaced over a distance of M and selects an effective number of discharging elements N eff of said plurality of N discharging elements for image-wise activation, where N eff ≦N.