Printing apparatus and power consumption reduction method of printing apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMasaaki Naoi
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Abstract
A printing apparatus, comprising a plurality of full-line-type printheads having an array of printing elements corresponding to a width of a print medium, calculates the number of pixels to be printed in a predetermined region, obtains a value related to power to be supplied to the printheads based on the number of pixels, determines whether or not the value related to power is larger than a predetermined value, and if the value related to power is larger than the predetermined value, performs thinning on pixels to be printed in a predetermined region so as to keep the value related to power under the predetermined value, thereby reducing power consumption without decreasing printing speed.
Claims18
A printing apparatus including a plurality of full-line-type printheads, each having an array of printing elements corresponding to a width of a print medium, comprising:
- pixel number calculation means for calculating a number of pixels to be printed in a predetermined region;
- electric print power calculation means for calculating a value related to electric power to be supplied to the plurality of printheads based on the number of pixels in a case where a print operation is performed by using the plurality of printheads;
- determination means for determining whether or not the value related to the electric power is larger than a predetermined value;
- and
- thinning means for thinning pixels to be printed in the predetermined region so as to keep the value related to the electric power under the predetermined value, in a case where said determination means determines that the value related to the electric power is larger than the predetermined value,
- wherein said pixel number calculation means calculates the number of pixels, even when the pixels are to be simultaneously printed on different printing media by the plurality of printheads.
A power consumption reduction method of a printing apparatus, which has a plurality of full-line-type printheads, each having an array of printing elements corresponding to a width of a print medium, comprising:
- a pixel number calculation step of calculating a number of pixels to be printed in a predetermined region;
- an electric print power calculation step of calculating a value related to electric power to be supplied to the plurality of printheads based on the number of pixels;
- a determination step of determining whether or not the value related to the electric power is larger than a predetermined value;
- and
- a thinning step of thinning pixels to be printed in the predetermined region so as to keep the value related to the electric power under the predetermined value, in a case where the value related to the electric power is determined to be larger than the predetermined value at said determination step,
- wherein said pixel number calculation step calculates the number of pixels, even when the pixels are to be simultaneously printed on different print media by the plurality of printheads.
A control program of a printing apparatus, which has a plurality of full-line-type printheads, each having an array of printing elements corresponding to a width of a print medium, said program having program codes corresponding to:
- a pixel number calculation step of calculating a number of pixels to be printed in a predetermined region;
- an electric print power calculation step of calculating a value related to electric power to be supplied to the plurality of printheads based on the number of pixels;
- a determination step of determining whether or not the value related to the electric power is larger than a predetermined value;
- and
- a thinning step of thinning pixels to be printed in the predetermined region so as to keep the value related to the electric power under the predetermined value, in a case where the value related to the electric power is determined to be larger than the predetermined value at said determination step,
- wherein said pixel number calculation step calculates the number of pixels, even when the pixels are to be simultaneously printed on different print media by the plurality of printheads.
A storage medium storing a control program for a printing apparatus, which has a plurality of full-line-type printheads, each having an array of printing elements corresponding to a width of a print medium, said program having program codes corresponding to:
- a pixel number calculation step of calculating a number of pixels to be printed in a predetermined region;
- an electric print power calculation step of calculating a value related to electric power to be supplied to the plurality of printheads based on the number of pixels;
- a determination step of determining whether or not the value related to the electric power is larger than a predetermined value;
- and
- a thinning step of thinning pixels to be printed in the predetermined region so as to keep the value related to the electric power under the predetermined value, in a case where the value related to the electric power is determined to be larger than the predetermined value at said determination steps,
- wherein said pixel number calculation step calculates the number of pixels, even when the pixels are to be simultaneously printed on different print media by the plurality of printheads.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.