Abstract: An ink printer means suitable both for multi-color as well as for single-color printing. To this end, the ink printer head is interchangeably designed. A common drive circuit that is connected to the ink printer head via a coding matrix is used both for the color printing as well as for the single-color printing. The coding matrix can be directly allocated to the ink printer head or, on the other hand, it can be composed of a switchable connector strip into which the terminal elements of the ink printer head engage.

Abstract: An arrangement of discharge openings in a printhead of a multi-color ink printer includes n discharge openings for ink droplets of a black color formed in a first vertical row and m discharge openings in each row for ink droplets of further fundamental colors forming further vertical rows. The discharge openings of each row have a spacing "a" and after a first pass of the write head across a recording medium, the recording medium is moved relative to the write head by at least half a print line height, or by half the spacing "a" of the discharge openings. The number of discharge openings n of the first row and the spacing "a" is selected so that characters can be represented in draft quality for a single pass of the write head, the characters being represented in near-letter quality by multiple passes of the write head.

Abstract: A multicolor ink jet printer has a plurality of ink reservoirs, for different primary colors, and prints multicolor images by applying matrix dots to the recording medium consisting of a single primary color or a mixture of primary colors. The diameter of the matrix dots formed on the recording medium is maintained constant either by adjusting the volume of ink in each droplet inversely with the number of droplets formed in a matrix dot, or preselecting a constant small volume for the droplets and forming each matrix dot of the same number of droplets, irrespective of whether the matrix dots are formed from a single primary color or a mixture of primary colors.