A method for printing color images with an ink jet printer. The ink jet printer includes a printhead having printing nozzles arranged in first, second, and third columns. The first, second, and third columns each have a length approximately equal to 3*H, where H represents a length of first, second, and third sections of the second column. The method includes ejecting ink from the nozzles of the first, second, or third sections of the second column during each pass of the printhead over a printing medium as necessitated by characteristics of the color image, advancing the printing medium in the first direction by the length H, and ejecting ink from the nozzles of the first and third columns during every third pass that the printhead makes over the printing medium as necessitated by the characteristics of the color image.