Printing method, printing apparatus and printing system

A printing apparatus using a print head on which a plurality of ejection openings for ejecting inks are arranged, said apparatus comprising:

• an image forming means comprising:
• a scanning means for scanning the print head in a main scan direction, the main scan direction being different from the arranging direction of the plurality of ejection openings, to execute printing of pixels obtained by a thinning process according to a mask pattern, and
• a transporting means, for, subsequent to said scanning means, transporting the printing medium in a sub-scan direction perpendicular to the main scan direction by the quantities less than the arranging width of the plurality of ejection openings,
• wherein said image forming means repeats said scanning means and said transporting means to make the arrangements of pixels printed according to respective mask patterns in respective said scanning means complemental arrangements to each other, so that an image for a same image area on the printing medium is formed by a plural times of said scanning means;
• and
• an applying means for applying the mask pattern to said image forming means corresponding to each of the plurality of said scanning means, each of the applied mask patterns being a pattern so that a distance between the pixels printed according to the mask pattern in each scanning means is longer than a predetermined value and the pixels are dispersed.

A printing system comprising a printing apparatus using a print head on which a plurality of ejection openings for ejecting inks are arranged, and a host apparatus for supplying image data to said printing apparatus, said printing apparatus having:

• an image forming means comprising:
• a scanning means for scanning the print head in a main scan direction, the main scan direction being different from the arranging direction of the plurality of ejection openings, to execute printing of pixels obtained by a thinning process according to a mask pattern, and
• a transporting means, for, subsequent to said scanning means, transporting the printing medium in a sub-scan direction perpendicular to the main scan direction by the quantities less than the arranging width of the plurality of ejection openings,
• wherein said image forming means repeats said scanning means and said transporting means to make the arrangements of pixels printed according to respective mask patterns in respective said scanning means complemental arrangements to each other, so that an image for a same image area on the printing medium is formed by a plural times of said scanning means;
• and
• an applying means for applying the mask pattern to said image forming means corresponding to each of the plurality of said scanning means, each of the applied mask patterns being a pattern so that a distance between the pixels printed according to the mask pattern in each scanning means is longer than a predetermined value and the pixels are dispersed.

A storage medium storing a control program for making a printing apparatus perform a printing method, said printing apparatus using a print head on which a plurality of ejection openings for ejecting inks are arranged, and said printing method comprising:

• an image forming step, said image forming step comprising:
• a scanning step, for scanning the print head in a main scan direction, the main scan direction being different from the arranging direction of the plurality of ejection openings, to execute printing of pixels obtained by a thinning process according to a mask pattern, and
• a transporting step, for, subsequent to said scanning step, transporting the printing medium in a sub-scan direction perpendicular to the main scan direction by the quantities less than the arranging width of the plurality of ejection openings,
• wherein said image forming step repeats said scanning step and said transporting step to make the arrangements of pixels printed according to respective mask patterns in respective said scanning steps complemental arrangements to each other, so that an image for a same image area on the printing medium is formed by a plural times of said scanning steps;
• and
• an applying step, for applying the mask pattern to said image forming step corresponding to each of the plurality of said scanning steps, each of the applied mask patterns being a pattern so that a distance between the pixels printed according to the mask pattern in each scanning step is longer than a predetermined value and the pixels are dispersed.

A control program for making a printing apparatus perform a printing method, said printing apparatus using a print head on which a plurality of ejection openings for ejecting inks are arranged, and said printing method comprising:

• an image forming step, said image forming step comprising:
• a scanning step, for scanning the print head in a main scan direction, the main scan direction being different from the arranging direction of the plurality of ejection openings, to execute printing of pixels obtained by a thinning process according to a mask pattern, and
• a transporting step, for, subsequent to said scanning step, transporting the printing medium in a sub-scan direction perpendicular to the main scan direction by the quantities less than the arranging width of the plurality of ejection openings,
• wherein said image forming step repeats said scanning step and said transporting step to make the arrangements of pixels printed according to respective mask patterns in respective said scanning steps complemental arrangements to each other, so that an image for a same image area on the printing medium is formed by a plural times of said scanning steps;
• and
• an applying step, for applying the mask pattern to said image forming step corresponding to each of the plurality of said scanning steps, each of the applied mask patterns being a pattern so that a distance between the pixels printed according to the mask pattern in each scanning step is longer than a predetermined value and the pixels are dispersed.