Patent ID: 7780256

Claim:
An inkjet primer comprising: an array of nozzles arranged into rows, the nozzles in each row being grouped into a plurality of adjacent spans, each having a plurality of adjacent nozzles; and, associated drive circuitry for actuating the nozzles in the row in accordance with a firing sequence, the firing sequence enabling the nozzles in each of the spans to fire sequentially, such that only one of the nozzles in each of the spans is enabled to eject printing fluid simultaneously; wherein, the drive circuitry is configured to space sequentially enabled nozzles such that a subsequently enabled nozzle is not adjacent a nozzle enabled immediately prior to the subsequently enabled nozzle; wherein the sequentially enabled nozzles are spaced apart by a uniform shift along each span in a uniform direction, the shift being a number of nozzles that is an integer greater than one and not a factor of the number of nozzles in the span, such that, the successively enabled nozzles in each span progress toward one end of the span until there are insufficient nozzles left at the end to fill the shift, in which case, the shift is completed with nozzles at the opposite end of the span so that all the nozzles in the span are enabled once during the firing sequence; and wherein the shift is the number of nozzles that is the nearest integer to the square root of the span, that is not a factor.