The Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) technique was applied to analyze the performance of ink jet printing heads close to operational conditions. This technique yields good statistical description of a large number of drops in a short period of time. An attempt was made to determine the optimal conditions for the printing head operation. The influence of changing the ejection frequency, voltage and pulse-width while changing the location of the measuring point on the velocity statistics were evaluated. The main and lateral velocity distributions were detected. The velocity average in the target direction increases up to about 6kHz and then oscillates. A convex curve was obtained with a velocity maximum related to the pulse width. Increasing the applied ejection voltage significantly affects the velocity of ink drops.