An ink-jet printer includes a printer housing structure, and at least one immobile ink-jet pen including a nozzle array mounted to the housing structure at a print area, the pen remaining stationary during printing operations. A two axis media drive system includes a media drive roller structure which is rotatable to move the medium in a first axis relative to the print area to position the medium relative to the pen nozzle array for a given swath, and a translating media carriage, the drive roller structure supported by the media carriage. The carriage is mounted for translating movement along a second axis transverse to the first direction, to slew the media along the second axis during printing, and a motor system for rotating the media drive roller and for translating the carriage. The motor system is a single motor/encoder system for driving the carriage and the roller. A drive transmission connects the motor system to the carriage and drive roller, and operates in a carriage drive mode or in a roller drive mode. A service station is mounted on the moving carriage, and includes a set of wiper blades and capping elements to respectively wipe and cap the pen nozzle plates.