Ink jet printer and ink jet printing method
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorsTsuyoshi Kitahara, Noboru Tamura, Hironori Endo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Drive signal generating means generates a drive signal including a plural number of drive pulses during one period. Print data generating means generates print data to input one or a plural number of the drive pulses to each pressure generating element during one print period. The pressure generating means expands and contracts in accordance with the drive pulses input thereto, to thereby cause the ejection of an ink droplet or droplets.
Claims37
An ink jet printer comprising:
- a print head having a plural number of nozzles associated with pressure generating elements;
- a print controller for driving the print head and controlling the ink ejecting operation of the print head;
- drive signal generating means for generating a drive signal including, during one period, a plural number of drive pulses for driving the print head to eject ink droplets from each nozzle;
- print data generating means for generating print data to input one or a plural number of the drive pulses to each pressure generating element during one print period and calculating a decode value which represents waveform elements of said print data, wherein said decode value is calculated from an input gray scale level;
- and
- switching means for inputting the drive signal to each pressure generating element in accordance with the print data, wherein the plural number of drive pulses generated by the drive signal generating means include a first drive pulse for generating a first ink droplet and a second drive pulse for generating a second ink droplet whose weight is different than that of the first ink droplet, and said first ink droplet and said second ink droplet are combined to form a printing dot in at least four levels of gray tone.
An ink jet printing method in which pressure generating elements corresponding to respective nozzles are actuated in order to eject ink droplets from the nozzles, the ink jet printing method comprising the steps of:
- generating a drive signal including, during one period, a plural number of drive pulses for ejecting the ink droplets from respective nozzles;
- generating print data to input one or a plural number of the drive pulses to each pressure generating element during one print period and calculating a decode value which represents waveform elements of said print data, wherein said decode value is calculated from an input gray scale level;
- and
- inputting the drive signal to each pressure generating element in accordance with the print data, wherein the plural number of drive pulses generated by the drive signal generating means include a first drive pulse for generating a first ink droplet and a second drive pulse for generating a second ink droplet whose weight is different than that of the first ink droplet, and said first ink droplet and second ink droplet are combined to form a printing dot in at least four levels of gray tone.
A computer readable medium having a program stored thereon for controlling a drive of a print head having a plural number of nozzles associated with pressure generating elements, wherein the program causes a computer to exercise a print data generating function to generate print data to input a plural number of drive pulses to each of the pressure generating elements during one print period and calculate a decode value which represents waveform elements of said print data, wherein said decode value is calculated from an input gray scale level, wherein the plural number of drive pulses generated by the drive signal generating means include a first drive pulse for generating a first ink droplet and a second drive pulse for generating a second ink droplet whose weight is different than that of the first ink droplet, and said first ink droplet and said second ink droplet are combined to form a printing dot in at least four levels of gray tone.
An ink jet printer comprising:
- a print head having a plural number of nozzles associated with pressure generating elements;
- a print controller for driving the print head and controlling the ink ejecting operation of the printing head;
- drive signal generator which generates a drive signal including, during one period, a plural number of drive pulses for driving the print head to eject ink droplets from each nozzle and calculates a decode value which represents waveform elements of said print data, wherein said decode value is calculated from an input gray scale level, wherein the plural number of drive pulses generated by the drive signal generating means include a first drive pulse for generating a first ink droplet and a second drive pulse for generating a second ink droplet whose weight is different than that of the first ink droplet, and said first ink droplet and said second ink droplet are combined to form a printing dot in at least four levels of gray tone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.