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US 12,649,308 B2Granted
Inkjet printer, image formation method, and computer readable recording medium storing image formation program
AssigneeKonica Minolta, Inc.
InventorShinya Asakura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An inkjet printer includes a plurality of nozzles and forms an image on a medium with ink ejected from each of the nozzles, and includes: a detector that detects an ejection failure nozzle of the ink from the plurality of nozzles; a test image former that forms on the medium a test image to which an ejection amount of ink from a neighboring nozzle adjacent to the ejection failure nozzle is added as an extra and supplemented; and a job image former that forms on the medium a job image obtained by performing correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle based on the test image formed on the medium.
Claims13
An inkjet printer that includes a plurality of nozzles and forms an image on a medium with ink ejected from each of the nozzles, the inkjet printer comprising:
- a detector that detects an ejection failure nozzle of the ink from the plurality of nozzles;
- a test image former that forms on the medium a test image to which an ejection amount of ink from a neighboring nozzle adjacent to the ejection failure nozzle is added as an extra and supplemented;
- a job image former that forms on the medium a job image obtained by performing correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle based on the test image formed on the medium;
- and
- an operation unit for an operator to select one test image from a plurality of the test images having different extra addition amounts of the ink from the neighboring nozzle;
- wherein the job image former forms the job image obtained by performing the correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle with the extra addition amount of the test image selected by the operation unit.
3 more elements
An inkjet printer that includes a plurality of nozzles and forms an image on a medium with ink ejected from each of the nozzles, the inkjet printer comprising:
- a detector that detects an ejection failure nozzle of the ink from the plurality of nozzles;
- a test image former that forms on the medium a test image to which an ejection amount of ink from a neighboring nozzle adjacent to the ejection failure nozzle is added as an extra and supplemented;
- a job image former that forms on the medium a job image obtained by performing correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle based on the test image formed on the medium;
- an image reader that reads the test image formed on the medium;
- an extra addition amount determiner that determines an extra addition amount for the correction of adding as the extra based on the test image read by the image reader;
- a plurality of ink heads that retain the plurality of nozzles;
- and
- a reference image former that forms a reference image for the test image on a medium;
- wherein the job image former forms the job image obtained by performing the correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle with the extra addition amount determined by the extra addition amount determiner;
- wherein each of the ink heads causes the nozzle to eject ink of a different color;
- wherein the reference image former forms an image as the reference image, the image being obtained by supplementing the ink from the ejection failure nozzle with ejection from a nozzle retained by a different ink head from the ink head that retains the ejection failure nozzle;
- wherein the image reader reads the reference image formed on the medium;
- wherein the extra addition amount determiner determines the extra addition amount for the correction of adding as the extra by comparing the reference image read by the image reader and the test image;
- wherein the reference image former selects a color of ink to be used for the supplement according to an image density;
- and
- wherein forms the reference image by supplement from a nozzle that ejects the ink of the selected color.
13 more elements
An inkjet printer that includes a plurality of nozzles and forms an image on a medium with ink ejected from each of the nozzles, the inkjet printer comprising:
- a detector that detects an ejection failure nozzle of the ink from the plurality of nozzles;
- a test image former that forms on the medium a test image to which an ejection amount of ink from a neighboring nozzle adjacent to the ejection failure nozzle is added as an extra and supplemented;
- a job image former that forms on the medium a job image obtained by performing correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle based on the test image formed on the medium;
- an image reader that reads the test image formed on the medium;
- an extra addition amount determiner that determines an extra addition amount for the correction of adding as the extra based on the test image read by the image reader;
- a plurality of ink heads that retain the plurality of nozzles;
- and
- a reference image former that forms a reference image for the test image on a medium;
- wherein the job image former forms the job image obtained by performing the correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle with the extra addition amount determined by the extra addition amount determiner;
- wherein each of the ink heads causes the nozzle to eject ink of a different color;
- wherein the reference image former forms an image as the reference image, the image being obtained by supplementing the ink from the ejection failure nozzle with ejection from a nozzle retained by a different ink head from the ink head that retains the ejection failure nozzle;
- wherein the image reader reads the reference image formed on the medium;
- wherein the extra addition amount determiner determines the extra addition amount for the correction of adding as the extra by comparing the reference image read by the image reader and the test image;
- and
- wherein the reference image former holds a conversion value of a pixel having a substantially same image density as an image density of an image formed using ink of a different color, and, when the detector detects the ejection failure nozzle, forms the reference image by converting a pixel value based on the held conversion value such that an image formed by ejection of the ink from the ejection failure nozzle and an image formed by the ejection of ink from the nozzle retained at the different ink head have a same density between colors of different inks.
12 more elements
An inkjet printer that includes a plurality of nozzles and forms an image on a medium with ink ejected from each of the nozzles, the inkjet printer comprising:
- a detector that detects an ejection failure nozzle of the ink from the plurality of nozzles;
- a test image former that forms on the medium a test image to which an ejection amount of ink from a neighboring nozzle adjacent to the ejection failure nozzle is added as an extra and supplemented;
- a plurality of ink heads that retain the plurality of nozzles;
- a reference image former that forms a reference image for the test image on a medium;
- an image reader that reads the test image formed on the medium;
- an extra addition amount determiner that determines an extra addition amount for the correction of adding as the extra based on the test image read by the image reader;
- and
- a job image former that forms on the medium a job image obtained by performing correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle based on the test image formed on the medium;
- wherein the reference image former forms the reference image by converting a pixel value such that an image formed by ejection of the ink from the ejection failure nozzle and an image formed by the ejection of ink from the nozzle retained at the different ink head have a same density between colors of different inks;
- wherein the job image former forms the job image obtained by performing the correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle with the extra addition amount determined by the extra addition amount determiner;
- wherein the image reader is an apparatus that can read an image density;
- wherein the extra addition amount determiner uses information of the image density read by the image reader when determining the extra addition amount;
- wherein each of the ink heads causes the nozzle to eject ink of a different color;
- wherein the reference image former forms an image as the reference image, the image being obtained by supplementing the ink from the ejection failure nozzle with ejection from a nozzle retained by a different ink head from the ink head that retains the ejection failure nozzle;
- wherein the image reader reads the reference image formed on the medium, and
- wherein the extra addition amount determiner determines the extra addition amount for the correction of adding as the extra by comparing the reference image read by the image reader and the test image.
13 more elements
An inkjet printer that includes a plurality of nozzles and forms an image on a medium with ink ejected from each of the nozzles, the inkjet printer comprising:
- a detector that detects an ejection failure nozzle of the ink from the plurality of nozzles;
- a test image former that forms on the medium a test image to which an ejection amount of ink from a neighboring nozzle adjacent to the ejection failure nozzle is added as an extra and supplemented;
- and
- a job image former that forms on the medium a job image obtained by performing correction of adding as the extra on the ejection amount of the ink from the neighboring nozzle based on the test image formed on the medium;
- wherein the test image former forms a plurality of test images for different image densities;
- and
- wherein the extra addition amount determiner determines the extra addition amount for the correction of adding as the extra per image density;
- wherein the extra addition amount determiner determines an extra addition amount for an intermediate image density of the image densities by linear interpolation based on the extra addition amount determined per image density;
- wherein the extra addition amount determiner determines an extra addition amount for each ejection failure nozzle.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.