A method for printing shingling print data in a shingling print pass of a multi-shingling-pass print swath. One step includes compacting the shingling print data by removing the deterministic voids associated with the shingling print algorithm. Another step includes expanding the compacted shingling print data based on the shingling print algorithm. An additional step includes printing the expanded shingling print data.

A first method obtains a printer having a single-printhead horizontal resolution of H dpi. Dots are printed using first and second printheads in the same print pass. The first printhead is enabled and the second printhead is non-enabled during a first portion of a carrier-movement distance equal to 1/H, and the second printhead is enabled and the first printhead is non-enabled during a second non-overlapping portion of such distance. A printer and a printhead driver for performing the first method are described. A second method obtains a printer having a single-printhead resolution of H horizontal dpi by V vertical dpi. First print data for the first printhead and second print data for the second printhead of H/2 horizontal dpi by V vertical dpi are obtained, are horizontally interlaced creating H horizontal dpi by V vertical dpi, and are printed using the first and second printheads in the same print pass.

A first method obtains a printer having a single-printhead horizontal resolution of H dpi. Dots are printed using first and second printheads in the same print pass. The first printhead is enabled and the second printhead is non-enabled during a first portion of a carrier-movement distance equal to 1/H, and the second printhead is enabled and the first printhead is non-enabled during a second non-overlapping portion of such distance. A printer and a printhead driver for performing the first method are described. A second method obtains a printer having a single-printhead resolution of H horizontal dpi by V vertical dpi. First print data for the first printhead and second print data for the second printhead of H/2 horizontal dpi by V vertical dpi are obtained, are horizontally interlaced creating H horizontal dpi by V vertical dpi, and are printed using the first and second printheads in the same print pass.

A method for printing shingling print data in a shingling print pass of a multi-shingling-pass print swath. One step includes compacting the shingling print data by removing the deterministic voids associated with the shingling print algorithm. Another step includes expanding the compacted shingling print data based on the shingling print algorithm. An additional step includes printing the expanded shingling print data.

A print quality enhancement arrangement for a dot matrix printer such as a thermal ink jet printer. The arrangement includes a buffer for receiving 300 dots per inch (dpi) resolution data in the horizontal (print head movement) direction and creates 600 dpi resolution data using image enhancement techniques. The arrangement further includes correction of the higher resolution data to remove pels which are unprintable due to the frequency response of the print elements in the print head. The correction is performed using knowledge of the history of printed pels and the original 300 dpi data. The creation of the higher resolution data and its correction occur "on-the-fly" as data is being fed to the print head, rather than through the creation of a 300 by 600 dpi bitmap.