A printer has a print path disposed along a left-and-right direction, a driving system for moving a print head left or right along the print path, a control circuit for controlling the driving system, and a look-ahead system. The print head is used to perform a printing operation that forms at least one pixel on a media in a print swath. The look-ahead system determines a plurality of different paths that cover at least three print swaths, and computes a print time required by the driving system to cover each path. The look-ahead system then selects a path having the shortest print time, and the control system directs the driving system to follow this path.