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US 2003/0193533 A1Published application
Printing apparatus and print control method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMasaya Kikuta, Hiroyuki Tamaki
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AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMasaya Kikuta, Hiroyuki Tamaki
Estimating the term…
This invention provides a low-cost printing apparatus and print control method capable of high-quality printing even in the use of a data buffer smaller in capacity than print data necessary for printing by one scanning of a printhead. According to this method, in printing using a small-capacity print buffer, print data is read out for each block of the print buffer divided into a plurality of blocks. Printing is done while the printhead is being scanned. As for printing using print data stored in the final block, printing is performed by one scanning of the printhead using print data stored in all blocks except the final block and print data obtained by sampling part of the print data stored in the final block. Further, printing is performed by the next scanning of the printhead using the remaining sampled data and print data newly stored in all the blocks except the final block.
A printing apparatus which performs printing by driving a printhead on the basis of print data transmitted from a host apparatus, comprising:
A print control method in a printing apparatus having scanning means for scanning a printhead on a printing medium in a main scanning direction, and a print buffer capable of storing print data smaller in amount than a print data amount for performing printing by scanning the printhead by a width scannable by the scanning means, comprising:
A printing apparatus which prints an image by scanning a carriage holding a printhead on a printing medium on the basis of image data received from a host apparatus for each of data frames obtained by dividing, by a predetermined number, image data necessary to print an image by one scanning at a width corresponding to the number of nozzles of the printhead, comprising:
A printing apparatus control method of printing an image by scanning a carriage holding a printhead on a printing medium on the basis of image data received from a host apparatus for each of data frames obtained by dividing, by a predetermined number, image data necessary to print an image by one scanning at a width corresponding to the number of nozzles of the printhead, comprising:
A control program of controlling a sprinting apparatus which prints an image by scanning a carriage holding a printhead on a printing medium on the basis of image data received from a host apparatus for each of data frames obtained by dividing, by a predetermined number, image data necessary to print an image by one scanning at a width corresponding to the number of nozzles of the printhead, comprising:
A computer-readable storage medium which stores a control program of controlling an image printing apparatus which prints an image by scanning a carriage holding a printhead on a printing medium on the basis of image data received from a host apparatus for each of data frames obtained by dividing, by a predetermined number, image data necessary to print an image by one scanning at a width corresponding to the number of nozzles of the printhead,
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
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Arrangements for producing a permanent visual presentation of the output data
Input data handling means: buffers
Graphical data reading
Term end not estimated
This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application Nos. 2002-112651 and 2002-127273, respectively entitled “Printing Apparatus and Print Control Method” and “Image Printing Apparatus and Its Control Method”, which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to a printing apparatus and print control method and, more particularly, to a printing apparatus and print control method using a data buffer smaller in capacity than a print data amount used when a printing apparatus, complying with an inkjet printing method of discharging ink droplets to, e.g., a printing medium and forming an image, scans a printhead once and prints data in a printing region determined by a printhead scannable width.
There is conventionally known a serial printer which receives print data from a host computer (to be referred to as a host hereinafter), conveys a printing medium such as a printing sheet, and prints data while reciprocally scanning a printhead by using the received data.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
FIG. 1 a perspective view showing the arrangement of an inkjet printing apparatus according to a typical embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the outer appearance of an ink cartridge;
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail in accordance with the accompanying drawings.
The following embodiments will exemplify a printing apparatus using an inkjet printhead. Further, the embodiments will exemplify a personal computer (to be referred to as a host hereinafter) as a host apparatus which transmits image printing data to the printing apparatus. However, the spirit and scope of the present invention are not limited to the following examples.
In this specification, “print” not only includes the formation of significant information such as characters and graphics, but also broadly includes the formation of images, figures, patterns, and the like on a printing medium, or the processing of the medium, regardless of whether they are significant or insignificant and whether they are so visualized as to be visually perceivable by humans.