Ink jet printing apparatus that identifies a region adjacent to a character for a thinning operation

An ink jet printing apparatus, comprising:

• a print head adapted to eject ink to a print medium to perform printing according to print data;
• a generating unit configured to generate the print data by thinning out a predetermined region of image data, the predetermined region being adjacent to a contour of a character and being located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected;
• wherein among pixels composing the predetermined region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a second distance, longer than the first distance, from the contour of the character, and
• a control unit configured to cause the print head to perform a printing operation based on the print data generated by the generating unit.

An ink jet printing method for printing an image by ejecting ink on a print medium from the print head, comprising:

• obtaining image data;
• generating print data by thinning out a predetermined region of the image data, the predetermined region being adjacent to a contour of a character and being located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected;
• wherein among pixels composing the predetermined region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a second distance, longer than the first distance, from the contour of the character, and
• controlling the print head to perform a printing operation based on the generated print data.

A data generating method for generating print data to print an image by applying ink to a print medium, comprising:

• obtaining image data corresponding to the image including a character;
• and
• generating the print data by thinning out a predetermined region of the image data, the predetermined region being adjacent to a contour of the character and being located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected;
• wherein among pixels composing the predetermined region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a second distance, longer than the first distance, from the contour of the character.

A data generating apparatus for generating print data to print an image by applying ink to a print medium, comprising:

• an obtaining unit configured to obtain image data corresponding to the image including a character;
• and
• a generating unit configured to generate the print data by thinning out a predetermined region of the image data, the predetermined region being adjacent to a contour of the character and being located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected;
• wherein among pixels composing the predetermined region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a second distance, longer than the first distance, from the contour of the character.