Printing apparatus and printing method
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorEiichi Ohara
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A printing apparatus includes a printing head including a nozzle configured to discharge a dot of a first size and a dot of a second size smaller than the first size, the dots being ink dots, and a control unit configured to control the printing head to print, on a printing medium, a test pattern for inspecting a state of ink discharge by the nozzle. The test pattern includes a first pattern element formed by a plurality of the dots of the first size and a second pattern element formed by a plurality of the dots of the second size. The control unit causes the printing head to print the test pattern where a number of the dots of the second size forming the second pattern element is greater than a number of the dots of the first size forming the first pattern element.
Claims6
A printing apparatus comprising:
- a printing head including a plurality of nozzles with a first nozzle configured to discharge a plurality of dots of a first size and a second nozzle configured to discharge a plurality of dots of a second size smaller than the first size, the dots being ink dots;
- and
- a control unit configured to control the printing head to print, on a printing medium, a test pattern for inspecting a state of ink discharge by the nozzles, wherein
- the test pattern includes a first pattern element formed by the plurality of the dots of the first size using the first nozzle and a second pattern element formed by the plurality of the dots of the second size using the second nozzle, and
- the control unit causes the printing head to print the test pattern where a number of the dots of the second size forming the second pattern element using the second nozzle is greater than a number of the dots of the first size forming the first pattern element using the first nozzle.
A printing method comprising:
- a printing step of printing a test pattern on a printing medium, using a printing head including a plurality of nozzles with a first nozzle configured to discharge a plurality of dots of a first size and a second nozzle configured to discharge a plurality of dots of a second size smaller than the first size, the dots being ink dots, and the test pattern being used to inspect a state of ink discharge by the nozzles, wherein
- the test pattern includes a first pattern element formed by the plurality of the dots of the first size using the first nozzle and a second pattern element formed by the plurality of the dots of the second size using the second nozzle, and
- the printing step causes the printing head to print the test pattern where a number of the dots of the second size forming the second pattern element using the second nozzle is greater than a number of the dots of the first size forming the first pattern element using the first nozzle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.