Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and non-transitory computer-readable medium

An image forming method performed by an image forming apparatus including a carriage configured to scan in a direction perpendicular to a conveying direction of a recording medium with an ejection head and an emitter unit mounted on the carriage, the ejection head being configured to eject ink droplets that harden when exposed to active energy line onto the recording medium to form an image, the emitter unit being configured to emit the active energy line that cures the ink droplets landed on the recording medium, and an image forming controller configured to control ejection of the ink droplets from the ejection head and scan of the carriage, the image forming method comprising:

• forming an ink droplet film of an uppermost layer of an image made of multiple layers of ink droplet films by performing at least one of controls of:
• forming the ink droplet film by unidirectional scan of the carriage,
• increasing the number of scans to a value higher than that for forming an ink droplet film of each lower layer other than the uppermost layer,
• increasing resolution of the image to a value higher than that of the ink droplet film of the each lower layer other than the uppermost layer,
• changing a landing order of the ink droplets to be ejected from the ejection heads, and
• reducing an ink droplet volume to be ejected from the ejection head to a value smaller than that of the ink droplet film of the each lower layer other than the uppermost layer;
• and
• forming the ink droplet film of the each lower layer other than the uppermost layer by bidirectional scan of the carriage.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer readable program codes, performed by an image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus including a carriage configured to scan in a direction perpendicular to a conveying direction of a recording medium with an ejection head and an emitter unit mounted on the carriage, the ejection head being configured to eject ink droplets that harden when exposed to active energy line onto the recording medium to form an image, the emitter unit being configured to emit the active energy line that cures the ink droplets landed on the recording medium, and an image forming controller configured to control ejection of the ink droplets from the ejection head and scan of the carriage, the program codes when executed causing the image forming apparatus to execute:

• forming an ink droplet film of an uppermost layer of an image made of multiple layers of ink droplet films by performing at least one of controls of:
• forming the ink droplet film by unidirectional scan of the carriage,
• increasing the number of scans to a value higher than that for forming an ink droplet film of each lower layer other than the uppermost layer,
• increasing resolution of the image to a value higher than that of the ink droplet film of the each lower layer other than the uppermost layer,
• changing a landing order of the ink droplets to be ejected from the ejection heads, and
• reducing an ink droplet volume to be ejected from the ejection head to a value smaller than that of the ink droplet film of the each lower layer other than the uppermost layer;
• and
• forming the ink droplet film of the each lower layer other than the uppermost layer by bidirectional scan of the carriage.