Patent ID: 7036897

Claim:
A method of operating a printer of a kind comprising a print head having an array of dot printing elements extending in a first direction relative to a page to be printed and which prints at least a part of the page during relative movement between the print head and page, which moves in a second direction at an angle to the first direction, the method comprising performing the following steps: (A) prior to a print job: (a) identifying portions of the array of printing elements which will be needed at least for a first pass of the print head relative to the first page of the print job each array portion comprising at least one group capable of printing a respective row of halftone values at a given resolution on the page with redundancy among the elements of the group, and (b) servicing printing elements of the array portions identified in step (a), the servicing comprising: (b1) for at least some groups, reducing the number of elements in the group available fo use, and (b2) servicing only the printing elements reamining avaiable for use after step (b1), and (B) printing the at least first pass.