Abstract: The quality of the images of dot printers such as ink jet printers (20) is improved by spacing the ink jet nozzles (52) of the print head (50) by an amount greater than the pixel spacing of the printing medium (22), and operating the sources in a manner such that adjacent pixels are not printed until the deposited colorant has time to dry. In the traversing direction (39), neighboring pixels are not printed on the same traversing pass. In the advance direction (32), by making the spacing of the ink jet nozzles (52) an integer multiple of the pixel spacing and advancing the print head (50) by a different integer multiple of the pixel spacing, the pixel patterns can be readily printed with high printing volume and with a constant incremental advance of the print head. The present approach is applicable to both color and black-and-white printing, but particular improvement is found for color printing.