Abstract: A printing system including a plurality of ink jet printers, wherein each printer contains a communications board to enable each printer to communicate with a personal computer over a common interface bus. The bus is connected to an interface on the personal computer. Preferably the interface is a parallel printer interface. A position sensor generates a signal corresponding to the positions of print locations on the print media. The resulting printing system is capable of printing in a direction other than the direction in which the object to be printed on or the substrate is travelling. The resulting printing system is also capable of overlaying a plurality of different colors at specific locations on the moving substrate or object.