Printing device and method for controlling printing device
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorAkito Sato
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A control section of a printing device has a print instruction receiving section configured to receive print instructions to a printing medium including a plurality of pages, and an ink use analyzing section configured to analyze image forming dots formed on each page and to output each of ink use information and ink non-use information for each page. The control section is configured to acquire the ink non-use information of a given first page of continuous pages of the plurality of pages and the ink use information of a second page that is a next page of the first page, and to determine to use ink, that is not used in the first page shown by the ink non-use information and is used in the second page shown by the ink use information, at least for flushing dots to the first page.
Claims7
A printing device comprising:
- at least one head having a plurality of nozzles configured and arranged to eject a plurality of kinds of ink;
- a driving mechanism configured and arranged to move at least one of a printing medium and the head so as to relatively change positions of the printing medium and the head;
- and
- a control section configured to control operation of forming image forming dots for printing an image designated as a print target and flushing dots other than the image forming dots on the printing medium by ejecting the ink from each of the nozzles while relatively changing the positions of the printing medium and the head by the driving mechanism, wherein
- the control section has a print instruction receiving section configured to receive print instructions to the printing medium including a plurality of pages, and an ink use analyzing section configured to analyze the image forming dots formed on each page of the plurality of pages and to output each of ink use information and ink non-use information for each page, the ink use information and the ink non-use information showing which ink is used and which ink is not used among the plurality of kinds of ink in each page, and
- when the print instruction receiving section receives the print instructions over the plurality of pages, the control section is configured to acquire the ink non-use information of a given first page of continuous pages of the plurality of pages and the ink use information of a second page that is a next page of the first page from the ink use analyzing section, and to determine to use ink, that is not used in the first page shown by the ink non-use information and is used in the second page shown by the ink use information, at least for the flushing dots to the first page.
A method for controlling a printing device including at least one head having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting a plurality of kinds of ink, a driving mechanism configured and arranged to move at least one of a printing medium and the head so as to relatively change positions of the printing medium and the head, and a control section configured to control operations of forming image forming dots for printing an image designated as a print target and flushing dots other than the image forming dot on the printing medium by ejecting the ink from each of the nozzles while relatively changing the positions of the printing medium and the head by the driving mechanism, the method for controlling a printing device comprising:
- receiving print instructions to the printing medium including a plurality of pages;
- and
- analyzing ink use by analyzing the image forming dots formed on each page of the plurality of pages and outputting each of ink use information and ink non-use information for each page, the ink use information and the ink non-use information showing which ink is used and which ink is not used among the plurality of kinds of ink in each page, wherein
- the analyzing the ink use includes, when receiving the print instructions over a plurality of pages, acquiring the ink non-use information of an given first page of continuous pages of the plurality of pages and the ink use information of a second page that is a next page of the first page, and determining to use ink, that is not used in the first page shown by the ink non-use information and is used in the second page shown by the ink use information, at least for the flushing dots to the first page.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.