Abstract: A printer is equipped with a small-size memory buffer for holding row data. A printer driver creates data hints that are sent to the printer before the entire data set is downloaded to the memory buffer. The data hint contains a color type to specify whether the row is black only, color only, or a combination of black and color. The data hint also contains information pertaining to the leftmost non-zero pixel position and a rightmost non-zero pixel position to be printed in the row. The printer has a swath manager configured to receive the data hints and prepare the printer to print the data set associated with the data hints. The swath manager relies on the data hints to make swathing decisions regarding the color of the row and where to position the print head carriage (or other print mechanism) in preparation for printing. As a result, the swath manager need not wait for the set of data to arrive before determining the color content of the row or the outer boundaries of the pixel data.