Image printing apparatus, control method therefor, storage medium and program
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsYoshinori Nakagawa, Jiro Moriyama, Hidehiko Kanda
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Printing of a unit pixel (1/D=1/600) in 4-pass printing (64 nozzles, and a total sheet supply amount of 62/600 in four operations) is exemplified in an image printing apparatus capable of printing a uniform, high-quality image while avoiding printing of a visually nonuniform image in multipass printing of two or more passes. With an image printing apparatus as described herein, satellites can be uniformly printed on the right and left of a unit pixel.
Claims24
A printing apparatus which prints onto a predetermined printing region of a printing medium by using a printhead having a plurality of nozzles that are aligned at a predetermined nozzle pitch and discharge ink droplets, and scanning the printhead a plurality of times, with respect to the predetermined printing region, in a direction cross to an alignment direction of the nozzles and discharging ink droplets from different nozzles of the printhead onto the predetermined printing region in the plurality of scanning operations, comprising:
- convey means for conveying the printing medium in a convey direction by a predetermined convey amount of every scanning;
- and
- control means for controlling the convey amount of every scanning to a convey amount corresponding to either one of even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch, and setting the convey amount corresponding to each of the even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch at least once in the plurality of scanning operations for printing onto the predetermined printing region.
A control method for a printing apparatus which prints onto a predetermined region of a printing medium by using a printhead having a plurality of nozzles that are aligned at a predetermined nozzle pitch and discharge ink droplets, and scanning the printhead a plurality of times, with respect to the predetermined printing region, in a direction cross to an alignment direction of the nozzles and discharging ink droplets from different nozzles of the printhead onto the predetermined printing region in the plurality of scanning operations, comprising:
- a convey step, of conveying the printing medium in a convey direction by a predetermined convey amount of every scanning;
- and
- a control step, of controlling the convey amount of every scanning to a convey amount corresponding to either one of even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch, and setting the convey amount corresponding to each of the even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch at least once in the plurality of scanning operations for printing onto the predetermined printing region.
A computer-readable storage medium which stores a control program for a printing apparatus which prints onto a predetermined printing region of a printing medium by using a printhead having a plurality of nozzles that are aligned at a predetermined nozzle pitch and discharge ink droplets, and scanning the printhead a plurality of times, with respect to the predetermined printing region, in a direction cross to an alignment direction of the nozzles and discharging ink droplets from different nozzles of the printhead onto the predetermined printing region in the plurality of scanning operations, the control program comprising:
- a program code of a convey step, of conveying the printing medium in a convey direction by a predetermined convey amount of every scanning;
- and
- a program code of a control step, of controlling the convey amount of every scanning to a convey amount corresponding to either one of even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch, and setting the convey amount corresponding to each of the even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch at least once in the plurality of scanning operations for printing onto the predetermined printing region.
A control program for a printing apparatus which prints onto a predetermined printing region of a printing medium by using a printhead having a plurality of nozzles that are aligned at a predetermined nozzle pitch and discharge ink droplets, and scanning the printhead a plurality of times, with respect to the predetermined printing region, in a direction cross to an alignment direction of the nozzles and discharging ink droplets from different nozzles of the printhead onto the predetermined printing region in the plurality of scanning operations, comprising:
- a program code of a convey step of conveying the printing medium in a convey direction by a predetermined convey amount of every scanning;
- and
- a program code of a control step of controlling the convey amount of every scanning to the convey amount corresponding to either one of even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch, and setting the convey amount corresponding to each of the even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch at least once in the plurality of scanning operations for printing onto the predetermined printing region.
A printing apparatus which prints onto a predetermined printing region of a printing medium by using a printhead having a plurality of nozzles that are aligned at a predetermined nozzle pitch and discharge same-color ink droplets, and scanning the printhead a plurality of times, with respect to the predetermined printing region, in a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction cross to an alignment direction of the nozzles, and discharge ink droplets from different nozzles of the printhead onto the predetermined printing region in the plurality of scanning operations including scanning operations in the first direction and the second direction, comprising:
- convey means for conveying the printing medium in a convey direction by a predetermined convey amount of every scanning;
- and
- control means for controlling a convey amount of the every scanning to a convey amount corresponding to either one of even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch, and setting the convey amount corresponding to each of the even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch at least once in the plurality of scanning operations for printing onto the predetermined printing region,
- wherein a direction of the ink droplet discharged from nozzles belonging to a first nozzle line in the plurality of nozzles aligned at the predetermined nozzle pitch is different from a direction of ink droplet discharged from nozzles belonging to a second nozzle line in the plurality of nozzles aligned at the predetermined nozzle pitch.
A printing apparatus which prints onto a unit printing pixel region of a printing medium by using a printhead having a plurality of nozzles that are aligned at a predetermined nozzle pitch and discharge same-color ink droplets, and scanning the printhead a plurality of times, with respect to the unit printing pixel region, in a direction cross to an alignment direction of the nozzles, and discharge ink droplets from different nozzles of the printhead onto the unit printing pixel region, comprising:
- printing means for printing onto the unit printing pixel region by discharging the same color ink droplets from the printhead in the plurality of scanning operations which include scanning operations in a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction being performed alternately;
- convey means for conveying the printing medium in a convey direction by a predetermined convey amount of every scanning;
- and
- control means for controlling the convey amount of the every scanning to a convey amount corresponding to either one of even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch, and setting the convey amount corresponding to each of the even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch at least once in the plurality of scanning operations for printing onto the unit printing pixel region,
- wherein a direction of the ink droplet discharged from a first nozzle line having odd number nozzles in the plurality of nozzles aligned at the predetermined nozzle pitch is different from a direction of the ink droplet discharged from a second nozzle line having even number nozzles in the plurality of nozzles.
A printing apparatus which prints onto a unit printing pixel region of a printing medium by using a printhead having a plurality of nozzles that are aligned at a predetermined nozzle pitch and discharge same-color ink droplets, and scanning the printhead a plurality of times, with respect to the unit printing pixel region, in a direction cross to an alignment direction of the nozzles, and discharge ink droplets from different nozzles of the printhead onto the unit printing pixel region, comprising:
- printing means for printing onto the unit printing pixel region by discharging the same-color ink droplets from the printhead in the plurality of scanning operations which include scanning operations in a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction being performed alternately;
- convey means for conveying the printing medium in a convey direction by a predetermined convey amount of every scanning;
- and
- control means for controlling the convey amount of the every scanning to a convey amount corresponding to either one of even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch, and setting the convey amount corresponding to each of the even and odd multiples of the nozzle pitch at least once in the plurality of scanning operations for printing onto the unit printing pixel region,
- wherein a relation in the scanning direction between landing positions of a main droplet and a satellite droplet discharged from a first nozzle line having odd number nozzles in the plurality of nozzles aligned at the predetermined nozzle pitch is different from a relation in the scanning direction between the landing positions of the main droplet and the satellite droplet discharged from a second nozzle line having even number nozzles in the plurality of nozzles.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.