US Patent 7441862 Method of modulating printhead peak power requirement using out-of-phase firing

A method of modulating a peak power requirement of an inkjet printhead is provided. The printhead comprises a plurality of transversely aligned color channels, each color channel comprising at least one nozzle row extending longitudinally along said printhead. Each nozzle in a color channel ejects the same colored ink. The printhead is comprised of a plurality of printhead modules, each printhead module comprising a respective segment of each nozzle row. The method comprising each of the printhead modules firing a respective segment within a predetermined segment-time, wherein at least one of the fired segments is contained in a different color channel from at least one other of the fired segments.