You could write multiple characters simultaneously. CRTs sort-of did that, for example, starting characters with ascenders before those without and finishing the characters without descenders before those with descenders.

So, in the word “gif”, they would start writing the “f” first and finish writing the “i” first (just before writing the last part of the “f”. For “if”, writing the “f” would start before writing the “i” started and finish after writing the “i” finished.

In traditional printing “writing” can happen simultaneously for an entire page, but colour printing can make things more complex.