Recording apparatus and method

A recording method applied to a recording apparatus comprising recording means having a nozzle line comprising a plurality of nozzles arranged along a sub-scan direction for recording a band having a record width corresponding to a length of the nozzle line onto a recording medium in accordance with an input image signal by discharging ink from said nozzles along a main scan direction orthogonal to the sub-scan direction, transport means for intermittently transporting the recording medium in the sub-scan direction, and control means for controlling the drive of said recording means and said transport means, said method comprising the steps of:

• setting a transport distance of the recording medium by said transport means to a distance smaller than the record width when the image to be recorded on the recording medium comprises a plurality of bands;
• rendering each of the bands to have at least one end having an image pattern complement to an image pattern at an end of an adjacent band along the sub-scan direction;
• making the length of the end in the sub-scan direction to be equal to a difference between the record width and the transport distance;
• and
• determining at least one of the width of the boundary area, the pixel pattern to be recorded in one scan and the density of the boundary area based on the input image signal or the count of the image input signal.

A recording apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium by a set of dots by discharging ink of at least one color from at least one recording head, comprising:

• image forming means for forming the image on the recording medium by scanning the recording head a plurality of times;
• said image forming means forming the image at the end of each scan of the recording head in a plurality of runs,
• wherein said image forming means conducts the thinning and the interpolation of a boundary area of adjacent images when the image is formed in the plurality of runs, and
• wherein said image forming means allows the selection of the processing patterns for the thinning and the interpolation when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.

A recording apparatus comprising:

• recording means having a nozzle line comprising a plurality of nozzles arranged along a sub-scan direction for recording a band having a record width corresponding to a length of the nozzle line onto a recording medium in accordance with an input image signal by discharging ink from said nozzles along a main scan direction orthogonal to the sub-scan direction;
• transport means for intermittently transporting the recording medium in the sub-scan direction;
• and
• control means for controlling the drive of said recording means and said transport means;
• said control means setting a transport distance of the recording medium by said transport means to a distance smaller than the record width when the image to be recorded on the recording medium comprises a plurality of bands;
• each of the bands having at least one end having an image pattern complement to an image pattern at an end of adjacent band along the sub-scan direction;
• and
• the length of the end in the sub-scan direction being equal to a difference between the record width and the transport distance,
• wherein the entire area in which ends of two adjacent bands along the sub-scan direction overlap is recorded by at least two scans of said recording means, and
• wherein said control means determines at least one of the width of the boundary area, the pixel pattern to be recorded in one scan and the density of the boundary area based on the input image signal or the count of the image input signal.

A recording method applied to a recording apparatus comprising recording means having a nozzle line comprising a plurality of nozzles arranged along a sub-scan direction for recording a band having a record width corresponding to a length of the nozzle line onto a recording medium in accordance with an input image signal by discharging ink from said nozzles along a main scan direction orthogonal to the sub-scan direction, transport means for intermittently transporting the recording medium in the sub-scan direction, and control means for controlling the drive of said recording means and said transport means, said method comprising the steps of:

• setting a transport distance of the recording medium by said transport means to a distance smaller than the record width when the image to be recorded on the recording medium comprises a plurality of bands;
• rendering each of the bands to have at least one end having an image pattern complement to an image pattern at an end of an adjacent band along the sub-scan direction;
• and
• making the length of the end in the sub-scan direction to be equal to a difference between the record width and the transport distance;
• recording the entire area in which ends of two adjacent bands along the sub-scan direction overlap by at least two scans of said recording means;
• and
• determining at least one of the width of the boundary area, the pixel pattern to be recorded in one scan and the density of the boundary area based on the input image signal or the count of the image input signal.