Combination of bidirectional-and unidirectional-printing using plural ink types
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorKoichi Otsuki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A printing head includes a first type nozzle groups for ejecting respective inks of a first ink group, and a second type nozzle group for ejecting respective inks of a second ink group. The second type nozzle group includes twice the number of nozzles in the first type nozzle group. On the forward passes of the main scanning, ink droplets are ejected from both the first type nozzle group and the second type nozzle group. On the reverse passes of the main scanning, ink droplets are ejected from only from the first type nozzle group. With respect to the first type nozzle group, the ejection timing of the ink droplets is corrected on the reverse passes of the main scanning on the basis of a specific correction value for dot misalignment.
Claims20
A bidirectional printer configured to form ink dots of a plurality of color inks on a printing medium along forward and reverse passes of main scanning, the printer comprising:
- a printing head equipped with a plurality of nozzle groups each having a plurality of nozzles that eject ink droplets of identical color;
- a main scanning mechanism configured to perform the main scanning by moving at least one of the printing head and the printing medium;
- a head driver configured to cause ejection of ink droplets from at least some of the plurality of nozzles during the main scanning;
- a sub-scanning mechanism configured to perform sub-scanning by moving at least one of the printing head and the printing medium;
- and
- a controller configured to control printing process;
- the plurality of nozzle groups including:
- a first type nozzle group that is used to eject ink of a first ink group including at least one ink, the first type nozzle group ejecting ink droplets along both the forward and reverse passes of the main scanning;
- and
- a second type nozzle group that is used to eject ink of a second ink group including at least one ink, the second type nozzle group ejecting ink droplets along only a selected one of the forward and reverse passes of the main scanning.
A printing head suitable for a bidirectional printer configured to form ink dots of a plurality of color inks on a printing medium along forward and reverse passes of main scanning, the printing head comprising:
- a plurality of nozzle groups each having a plurality of nozzles that eject ink droplets of identical color;
- the plurality of nozzle groups including:
- a first type nozzle group that is used to eject ink of a first ink group including at least one ink, the first type nozzle group ejecting ink droplets along both the forward and reverse passes of the main scanning;
- and
- a second type nozzle group that is used to eject ink of a second ink group including at least one ink, the second type nozzle group ejecting ink droplets along only a selected one of the forward and reverse passes of the main scanning, the second type nozzle group including 2×i times the number of nozzles in the first type nozzle group where i is an integer of one or more.
A printing control device configured to produce printing data to be supplied to a bidirectional printing device, the printing device being equipped with a printing head which has a first type nozzle group for ejecting ink of a first ink group including at least one ink, and a second type nozzle group for ejecting ink of a second ink group including at least one ink, the printing control device comprising:
- a printing data generator configured to generates printing data that is used to cause ejection of ink droplets from the first type nozzle group and the second type nozzle group along a selected one of forward and reverse passes of main scanning, and that is used to cause ejection of ink droplets only from the first type nozzle group on the other one of the forward and reverse passes of the main scanning.
In a bidirectional printer equipped with a printing head having a first type nozzle group for ejecting a first ink group including at least one ink, and a second type nozzle group for ejecting a second ink group including at least one ink, a printing method comprising the steps of:
- (a) ejecting ink droplets from the first type nozzle group and the second type nozzle group along a selected one of forward and reverse passes of main scanning, and
- (b) ejecting ink droplets only from the first type nozzle group along the other of the forward and reverse passes of the main scanning.
A computer program product for causing a computer to execute printing, the computer being equipped with a bidirectional printing device that has a printing head, the printing head having a first type nozzle group for ejecting a first ink group including at least one ink, and a second type nozzle group for ejecting a second ink group including at least one ink, the computer program product comprising:
- a computer readable medium;
- and
- a computer program stored on the computer readable medium;
- the computer program comprises:
- a first program for causing the printing device to eject ink droplets from the first type nozzle group and the second type nozzle group along a selected one of the forward and reverse passes of the main scanning, and
- a second program for causing the printing device to eject ink droplets only from the first type nozzle group along the other of the forward and reverse passes of the main scanning.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.