A swath type printer including a print carriage supported printhead and a printhead positioning mechanism for adjusting the position of the printhead relative to the media axis at the end of each scan of the carriage along a carriage axis, such that dots printed by printing elements of the printhead in a sequence of a first scan and a second scan of the print carriage are interleaved along the media axis and are separated along the media axis by one-half of the predetermined printing element dot pitch.

Greater throughput is possible by using wider print swaths in each traverse across printing media. Multiple print cartridges are mounted to be offset from each other in the media scan direction (X-axis). The amount of offset is adjustably varied by selective on/off control of individual printing elements as well as by relative mechanical movement of the print cartridges.

An ink jet printer that including a movable print carriage, an ink jet printhead cartridge removably supported by the movable print carriage, a stationary ink reservoir located remotely from the ink jet printhead cartridge, a movable ink conveying coupler fluidically coupled to the stationary ink reservoir, and a rigid ink conveying tube connected between the movable ink conveying coupler and the ink jet printhead cartridge, wherein the movable ink conveying coupler moves relative to the stationary ink reservoir as the movable carriage moves along a carriage axis. A ink pump can be driven by the reciprocating motion of the movable ink conveying coupler, and another rigid ink conveying tube be provided to achieve ink recirculation for printhead cooling.

Greater throughput is possible by using wider print swaths in each traverse across printing media. Multiple print cartridges are mounted to be offset from each other in the media scan direction (X-axis). The amount of offset is adjustably varied by selective on/off control of individual printing elements as well as by relative mechanical movement of the print cartridges.