Staggered dither cell and method for generating same

1. A method of generating a staggered dither cell for an image to be printed, said method comprising the steps of:

writing color component values corresponding to even pixels in first entry locations in said dither cell in a correct order for printing by a printhead, the number of color component values being determined by the loading criteria of the printhead;

writing color component values corresponding to odd pixels in second entry locations in said dither cell in a correct order for printing by a printhead, the number of color component values being determined by the loading criteria of the printhead; and

mapping said dither cell to a staggered dither cell such that lines of said even pixel values are staggered relative to lines of said odd pixel values.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said writing steps further comprise writing twelve color component values in each of said first and second entry locations.

3. A staggered dither cell for storing color component values of an image to be printed, said dither cell comprising:

A 50×50 entry cell;

twelve color component values stored in each entry location of said cell; and

lines of said values corresponding to odd pixels of said image in said cell staggered relative to lines of said values corresponding to even pixels of said image.

4. The dither cell of claim 3 wherein said twelve color components consist of three colors to be printed for four segments of a printhead.