Printing apparatus and printing method

Abstract

Disclosed are a printing apparatus and a printing method which can prevent a deterioration in printing image quality when printing is executed on a time-division basis while performing scanning continuously with a printer head. In a two-liquid mixing type ink jet printer which performs printing in halftone by mixing a determined amount of ink with a fixed amount of diluent, when printing is executed through interleaving operation by driving on a time-division basis each determination side electrostrictive element 309 and each ejection side electrostrictive element 310 of a group of nozzles provided on a recording head, the nozzles are divided into groups driven with same ejection timing and the ejection timing between the groups is determined such that the printing position for each nozzle ejecting ink is adjacent to the printing positions for those nozzles which are adjacent thereto with respect to the sub-scanning direction, with respect to the main scanning direction, whereby it is possible to make printing misregistration less conspicuous when performing printing while effecting scanning with the printer head 30 in the main scanning direction, thereby making it possible to prevent a deterioration in printing image quality even when an image having a longitudinal line component is printed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.