Patent ID: 7374269

Claim:
An ink jet printer having the capability of bidirectional printing and the ability to determine unidirectional print direction for optimal print quality, comprising: a printhead comprised of dot forming nozzles for projecting ink onto a printing area on a recording medium, wherein the printhead is mounted on a carriage assembly; a control unit, wherein the control unit is configured to control movement of the printhead along the carriage assembly and control projection of ink from the printhead; a sensor, wherein the sensor is configured to analyze one or more print characteristics of a recorded image; and a first computer readable storage medium, wherein the first computer readable storage medium comprises executable instructions for causing the control unit to: print a first plurality of gray scale patches on a recordable medium, wherein the first plurality of patches are printed in a first direction; print a second plurality of gray scale patches on the recordable medium, wherein the second plurality of patches are printed in a second direction opposite the first direction; scan the first and second plurality of gray scale patches with the sensor; compare the scanned first plurality of gray scale patches with the second plurality of gray scale patches; determine the optimum unidirectional print direction of the bidirectional capable printer based on the comparison of the scanned plurality of gray scale patches; and store the optimum print direction in the first or another computer readable storage medium on the printer and/or computer.