Printing method and printing apparatus

A printing apparatus for performing printing on a printing medium using a print head arrayed with a plurality of printing elements, said apparatus comprising:

• scanning means for moving the print head and the printing medium relative to each other to scan the print head to the printing medium;
• paper feed means for moving the print head and the printing medium relative to each other to feed the printing medium in a direction different from a scan direction of the print head;
• multipass control means for controlling said scanning means and said paper feed means to scan the print head a plurality of times between which feeding of the printing medium by said paper feed means is performed, so that different printing elements of the print head are made to correspond to a same print area of the printing medium at the plurality times of scans to print the print area and printing for areas are completed successively for each scan of the plurality of scans;
• and
• mask means for performing mask processing to generate image data used for control of printing by said multipass control means, said mask processing being performed so that a printing duty for a part of a group of the printing elements other than an end group in an arrangement of a plurality of groups of the printing elements, which are made to correspond to one of the areas of which printing is completed successively for each scan of said plurality of scans, is made zero.

A printing method of performing printing on a printing medium using a print head arrayed with a plurality of printing elements, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing scanning means for moving the print head and the printing medium relative to each other to scan the print head to the printing medium, and paper feed means for moving the print head and the printing medium relative to each other to feed the printing medium in a direction different from a scan direction of the print head;
• controlling said scanning means and said paper feed means to scan the print head a plurality of times between which feeding of the printing medium by said paper feed means is performed, so that different printing elements of the print head are made to correspond to a same print area of the printing medium at the plurality times of scans to print the print area and printing for areas are completed successively for each scan of the plurality of scans;
• and
• performing mask processing to generate image data used for control of printing in said step for controlling said scanning means and said paper feed means, said mask processing being performed so that a printing duty for an end group of the printing elements in an arrangement of a plurality of groups of the printing elements, which are made to correspond to one of the areas of which printing is completed successively for each scan of said plurality of scans, is made smaller than that of other groups of said plurality of groups.

A printing method of performing printing on a printing medium using a print head arrayed with a plurality of printing elements, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing scanning means for moving the print head and the printing medium relative to each other to scan the print head to the printing medium, and paper feed means for moving the print head and the printing medium relative to each other to feed the printing medium in a direction different from a scan direction of the print head;
• controlling said scanning means and said paper feed means to scan the print head a plurality of times between which feeding of the printing medium by said paper feed means is performed, so that different printing elements of the print head are made to correspond to a same print area of the printing medium at the plurality times of scans to print the print area and printing for areas are completed successively for each scan of the plurality of scans;
• and
• performing mask processing to generate image data used for control of printing in said step for controlling said scanning means and said paper feed means, said mask processing being performed so that a printing duty for a part of a group of the printing elements other than an end group in an arrangement of a plurality of groups of the printing elements, which are made to correspond to one of the areas of which printing is completed successively for each scan of said plurality of scans, is made zero.