Abstract: Achromatic Component Addition technique for producing printed ink-jet images of high quality, low granularity, and increased resolution of dithered gradients. Drops of chromatic inks are combined with drops of achromatic ink in any predetermined ratio and in any predetermined order on predetermined areas on a printing medium to produce imaged areas having differing lightness and lower chroma. The technique increases the number of color levels without increasing printer resolution and effectively increases resolution of dithered gradients by requiring fewer addressable pixels to produce the same color transition.