A hand held inkjet pen includes a housing, an ink reservoir, an inkjet printhead and a spacer. The ink reservoir is located within the housing. The inkjet printhead is located toward a distal end of the housing, and includes a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink received from the reservoir. The spacer is located at the distal end of the housing for contacting a media sheet. Force applied to the spacer selects an on state for controlling ejection of ink from the plurality of nozzles.

An embodiment of a manual printer is particularly well suited for forming images on the surface of uneven objects. The embodiment of the manual printer includes a microprocessor for controlling its operation. Image data is stored in RAM and the firmware for controlling the operation of the microprocessor is stored in ROM. A print head interface generates drive signals for a print head using data received from the microprocessor. A signal is generated by an emitter. A receiver in the manual printer receives the signal. The signal includes an x-component, a y-component, and a z-component. The microprocessor determines the position of the manual printer with respect to a reference location using the components of the signal. A distance sensor in the manual printer measures the distance of the print head from the surface of the object. A tilt sensor in the manual printer measures an angle between a longitudinal axis in the manual printer and the surface of the object. An acceleration sensor in the manual printer measures the acceleration resulting from movement by a user. A display in the manual printer allows the user to preview and select images for performing an imaging operation. A user begins forming an image by depressing a button while moving the manual printer over the surface of the object. If the microprocessor determines that position, distance, angle, and acceleration are within allowable limits, ink is ejected from the print head to form the image.

A method and system for position-aware freeform printing in which a source image space in a source medium and a target image space in a target medium are specified. A selected image in the source image space is copied and/or optionally processed and transferred to the target image space. A controller captures the selected source image and stores the image in a memory. The image is optionally processed and the processed and optionally formatted image is output. The controller may format the processed image to fit into the target image space by controlling the rendering of the processed image onto the target medium as the printing device is moved over the target image space in a freeform direction. The controller predicts the freeform direction that the print head will travel by detecting the motion previously traveled and adjusting the image to compensate for the predicted freeform direction.

A handheld inkjet printing mechanism is provided for printing a selected image on a print surface of a solid hard body or a semi-flexible body, such as on human skin for face-painting at carnivals, for temporary tattoos, body decorations and the like, on walls and furniture for printing designs, on packages and building materials for labeling purposes, etc. The printing mechanism has a chassis which supports a controller that stores the selected image. An inkjet printhead supported by the chassis selectively ejects inkjet ink onto the print surface in response to the controller as an operator moves the printing mechanism over the print surface to record the selected image thereon. A printhead-to-print surface spacing device controls the spacing between the printhead and the print surface while printing. A printing method using such a handheld printing mechanism is also provided.