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US 8,011,756 B2Granted
Imaging method and inkjet recording apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsTakahiro Ike, Yoshihisa Ohta, Masakazu Yoshida, Takashi Kimura, Masanori Hirano
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An imaging method is disclosed for realizing full color printing using an ink head configured to discharge black ink and a plurality of color inks. The imaging method involves printing a monochrome image portion by printing a plurality of first rasters using black ink and an arbitrary number of the color inks, and printing a second raster in between the first rasters using pseudo black ink that is realized by the remaining number of the color inks.
Claims18
An imaging method for realizing full color printing, the method comprising:
- providing an ink head configured to discharge black ink and a plurality of primary color inks of cyan, magenta and yellow,
- the ink head including a first nozzle row group and a second nozzle row group,
- the first nozzle row group including a black nozzle row having black nozzles for discharging the black ink and a color nozzle row having first color nozzles for discharging yellow ink, the first color nozzles for discharging the yellow ink being arranged at first scanning line positions that are same in a sub scanning direction as scanning line positions of the black nozzles of the first nozzle row group, and
- the second nozzle row group including color nozzle rows having second color nozzles for discharging at least two primary color inks other than the yellow ink, the second color nozzles for discharging the at least two primary color inks other than the yellow ink being arranged at scanning line positions that are shifted from the scanning line positions of the first color nozzles for discharging the yellow ink by half a nozzle pitch in the sub scanning direction,
- printing a monochrome image portion, in accordance with image data of a specific resolution in the sub scanning direction, by printing a plurality of first rasters by ejecting the black ink and the yellow ink through the first nozzle row group, in accordance with the image data of the specific resolution in the sub scanning direction, and printing a second raster in between the first rasters using pseudo black ink that is realized by ejecting a remaining number of the primary color inks through the second nozzle row group, in accordance with the same image data of the specific resolution in the sub scanning direction, such that the printed monochrome image portion has a recording resolution higher than the specific resolution in the sub scanning direction.
2 more elements
An inkjet recording apparatus that forms an image on a recording medium, the apparatus comprising:
- an ink head configured to discharge black ink and a plurality of color inks while moving back and forth in a main scanning direction that is perpendicular to a sub scanning direction corresponding to a conveying direction of the recording medium;
- and
- a control unit configured to control operation of the ink head;
- wherein the ink head includes a first nozzle row group and a second nozzle row group,
- the first nozzle row group including a black nozzle row having black nozzles for discharging the black ink and a color nozzle row having first color nozzles for discharging yellow ink, the first color nozzles for discharging the yellow ink being arranged at first scanning line positions that are same in a sub scanning direction as scanning line positions of the black nozzles of the first nozzle row group, and
- the second nozzle row group including a plurality of color nozzle rows having second color nozzles for discharging the color inks other than the yellow ink, the second color nozzles for discharging the at least two primary color inks other than the yellow ink being arranged at scanning line positions that are shifted from the scanning line positions of the first color nozzles for discharging the yellow ink by half a nozzle pitch in the sub scanning direction;
- and
- the second nozzle row group is configured to perform pseudo black printing by printing a color dot as a pseudo black dot substituting a black dot of a monochrome image portion using at least two of the color nozzles positioned at a raster position of said black dot;
- and
- wherein the control unit causes the ink head to print a monochrome image portion, in accordance with image data of a specific resolution in the sub scanning direction, by printing a plurality of first rasters by ejecting the black ink and the yellow ink through the first nozzle row group, in accordance with the image data of the specific resolution in the sub scanning direction, and print a second raster in between the first rasters using pseudo black ink that is realized by ejecting an arbitrary number of the remaining primary color inks through the second nozzle row group, in accordance with the same image data of the specific resolution in the sub scanning direction, such that the printed monochrome image portion has a recording resolution higher than the specific resolution in the sub scanning direction.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.