Printing apparatus, liquid absorbing apparatus, and printing method

A liquid absorbing apparatus comprising:

• a liquid absorbing member configured to be cyclically movable and to absorb a liquid component from an ink image, formed by discharging ink from a printhead to a transfer member, before the ink image is transferred to a print medium;
• a recovery unit arranged on a moving path of the liquid absorbing member and configured to recover absorption performance of the liquid absorbing member by applying a moisturizing liquid to the liquid absorbing member;
• a first estimation unit configured to estimate, based on print data, an ink discharge amount of ink to be discharged from the printhead in order to form the ink image;
• a second estimation unit configured to estimate a liquid amount of the liquid component to be absorbed by the liquid absorbing member from the ink discharge amount estimated by the first estimation unit;
• and
• a control unit configured to control an application amount of the moisturizing liquid by the recovery unit based on a result of estimation by the second estimation unit.

A printing method of a printing apparatus that forms an ink image by discharging ink from a printhead to a transfer member, transfers the formed ink image to a print medium, and prints the image, the method comprising:

• forming the ink image by discharging the ink from the printhead to the transfer member;
• absorbing a liquid component from the ink image formed on the transfer member by cyclically moving a liquid absorbing member;
• estimating, based on print data, an ink discharge amount of ink to be discharged from the printhead in order to form the ink image;
• estimating a liquid amount of the liquid component to be absorbed by the liquid absorbing member from the estimated ink discharge amount;
• recovering absorption performance of the liquid absorbing member by applying a moisturizing liquid to the liquid absorbing member with a recovery unit arranged on a moving path of the liquid absorbing member;
• controlling an application amount of the moisturizing liquid by the recovery unit based on the estimated liquid amount;
• and
• transferring the ink image, from which the liquid component is absorbed, to the print medium.