Hewlett-Packard Company

Matthew W Scuri

Antoni S Murcia

Juan Carlos Vives

A fast and economical thermal inkjet printer prints on elongate print media, such as on a strip of paper from a roll, by moving a fluid jet print cartridge a determined dimension longitudinally of the length dimension of the paper strip while printing. In order to print a document that is wider than the width the print cartridge can print in a single scan of the paper, the cartridge is dithered among selected lateral positions within the width of the paper strip, and successively is scanned lengthwise of the paper strip to print in each successive longitudinal printing &ldquo;swath.&rdquo; A capstan of the printer advances the paper strip in steps of unit dimension along the length of the paper strip, which unit dimension may be substantially equal to the determined dimension of print cartridge movement while printing, so that documents having a length greater than the determined dimension can be printed in successive parts each of a length equal to this unit dimension. The capstan can also selectively advance the paper strip by a dimension that is less than the unit dimension so that documents printed on the printer may have lengths other than multiples of the determined dimension, thus saving on paper use.

Growing community of inventors

Meridian, ID, United States of America

Matthew W Scuri