Patent ID: 7819493

Claim:
An element board for a printhead comprising: a plurality of printing elements aligned in a predetermined direction and formed into groups, with each group comprising a predetermined number of adjacent printing elements; driving circuits which drive said printing elements, said driving circuits being arranged in groups corresponding to the groups of printing elements; a plurality of element selection circuits, each element selection circuit corresponding to one of the groups, and each being adapted to select printing elements within each group in common, on the basis of image data; and a driving selection circuit which time-divisionally selects one of said printing elements in each group, wherein each of said plurality of element selection circuits is comprised of a one-bit shift register and latch, and the driving circuits in one group are connected to a corresponding one of the plurality of element selection circuits through one output of the corresponding element selection circuit, one-bit shift registers and latches for a number of the groups are connected in series, each of the one-bit shift registers and latches are arranged adjacent to said driving circuits driving printing elements included in each group, and at least one of the element selection circuits is disposed between two adjacent groups of driving circuits.