Patent ID: 7165824

Claim:
A method of compensating for an inoperative nozzle in a bi-lithic printhead, the bi-lithic printhead including a plurality of sets of nozzles for printing a corresponding plurality of channels of dot data, the method comprising the steps of: (a) rendering compressed pages to form a bi-level layer for a given print line intended for the bi-lithic printhead; (b) expanding the compressed bi-level layer; (c) compositing the bi-level layer to produce bi-level dots; (d) determining which combination of one or more available operative nozzles near the inoperative nozzle will minimize perceived error in an image that the dot data forms part of, the determination being performed on the basis of a color model; (e) mapping the dot data intended for the inoperative nozzle to that combination of one or more operative nozzles from the same set; and, (f) passing resultant bi-level channel dot data to the bi-lithic printhead.