摘要:
An adjustment value applicable to the adjustment of a printing position is obtainable by reading a printing position adjustment pattern printed on a printing medium without requiring the manual operation by the operator. Furthermore, the printing position can be optimally adjusted by accurately scanning the printing position adjustment pattern. For this purpose, an optical sensor is located in the vicinity of the printing head, and the optical sensor is situated near a predetermined position side. The predetermined position side is a pinch roller side where a large restrictive force acts to the printing medium with the printing position adjustment pattern printed thereon.
摘要:
If print agents used are detected by an optical sensor at different sensitivities, the present invention enables the easy setting of adjustment values for print positions resulting from these print agents. To accomplish this object, for example, the present invention substitutes and sets adjustment values for print positions resulting from cyan, light cyan, or black ink, corresponding to a high detection sensitivity, for adjustment values for print positions resulting from a light magenta, yellow, or magenta ink, corresponding to a low detection sensitivity.
摘要:
Even if an error occurred in a result of the detection by an optical detecting mechanism for optically detecting whether or not a remaining amount of ink in an ink tank is equal to or less than a predetermined amount, a correct situation of the remaining ink amount in the ink tank can be detected. A detecting method has a first discriminating step of discriminating whether or not a remaining ink amount in the ink tank is equal to or less than a predetermined amount by using an optical sensor and a second discriminating step of discriminating whether or not the remaining ink amount in the ink tank is equal to or less than the predetermined amount on the basis of information regarding an amount of ink consumed in the ink tank. If the absence of ink is determined in either the first or second discriminating step, information showing the absence of ink is notified.
摘要:
For a serial color ink jet printing apparatus that forms an image using a symmetric printing head that ejects large dots and small dots, the configuration of a printing head is provided for suppressing, to the extent possible, a cyclic fluctuation in the main scanning direction. According to the present invention, individual nozzle arrays are arranged so that two nozzle arrays, i.e., a cyan nozzle array c1 and a magenta nozzle array m1, that are located nearer each other, form dots on adjacent scan lines. With this arrangement, a high quality image, having neither an uneven density nor an uneven color, can be formed when a printing head is inclined, or when a cyclic shift in printing positions occurs, depending on the position of the main scanning direction.
摘要:
A printing apparatus and a preliminary discharge control method are capable of efficient preliminary discharge control even in a case where a time interval to assure normal printing is equal or nearly equal to the period of one print scanning of an inkjet printhead. In the method, in an inkjet printhead which performs printing by discharging ink from plural print elements while being reciprocate-scanned by a carriage, the number of ink dischargings from each of the plural print elements is counted during print scanning by reciprocate scanning. It is determined whether or not the counted number of ink dischargings from each of the plural print elements is equal to or greater than a predetermined number at predetermined intervals. In accordance with the result of determination, a printable period is updated, and the updated printable period is compared with time necessary for the next print scanning upon completion of one print scanning by reciprocate scanning. Then, in accordance with the result of comparison, preliminary discharge is performed from the inkjet printhead.
摘要:
This invention minimizes a consumption of a colorant during a so-called margin-less printing and alleviates a contamination of an interior of a printing apparatus. For this purpose, when forming an image by applying a colorant to an area overrunning outwardly from the print medium, a width of overrun from the print medium in a colorant application area is adjusted according to a kind and a size of the print medium.
摘要:
A controller generates printing data to be printed by the printing nozzles of at least first and second adjacent printing nozzle arrays out of a plurality of printing nozzle arrays on the basis of tone information of image data to be printed. In particular, the controller generates printing data to be printed by each of the first and second printing nozzle arrays in the range in which the influence of an air flow generated along with ink discharge from the first and second printing nozzle arrays is admissible. Printing by the first and second printing nozzle arrays of the printhead is controlled on the basis of the generated printing data.
摘要:
According to the present invention, if an image is printed on both sides of a printing medium, the possibility of rubbing ink off from the printing medium is minimized to inhibit contamination of the printing medium and the interior of the printing apparatus, while maintaining the print grade of the image. Thus, if a double side print mode is executed in which an image is printed on both sides of the printing medium, then, for a particular image part, a ratio of an amount of black pigment ink used to an amount of black dye ink used is set so as to limit the amount of black pigment ink used and to compensate for a decrease in print density with the limited amount of the black pigment ink used.
摘要:
A print apparatus that, without significantly reducing an overall printing speed, allows a reduction in uneven densities due to the discharge time difference between black ink and color inks, which occur particularly at both ends in a scanning range and which are caused by the printing by bidirectional scanning of print heads, and enables high image-quality printing to be realized. In this print apparatus, one band is divided into plural areas in a main scanning direction, the dot numbers of black ink and color ink imparted to respective areas are counted. If there are any areas where the dot numbers of both black and color exceed respective threshold values, the area number is counted, and if the number exceeds a predetermined number, the print mode is switched from bidirectional printing to a unidirectional one, upon determining that there is a high probability of occurrence of the above-described uneven densities.
摘要:
There is provided a printing registration method for stably performing printing registration in bi-directional scanning by a print head in a printing apparatus or printing registration between a plurality of print heads with high accuracy. In complementary printing by the bi-directional scanning by the head, a plurality of patterns are printed while printing starting timings are shifted by predetermined quantities with respect to reference dots (dots formed by forward scanning). In the pattern, an area factor defined by the dots formed by the printing is varied according to the shifting. The plurality of patterns are optically read as an average density. The timing corresponding to a point where the read average density is highest can be determined as a printing registration condition. Furthermore, an optical sensor used for the reading is located at a position where an S/N ratio is stable with respect to fluctuations in distance from the object to be read, thus achieving stable reading.