Entries |
Document | Title | Date |
20080211850 | Liquid Ejecting Method and Liquid Ejecting Apparatus - A liquid ejecting method includes detecting a faulty nozzle in which an ejection fault occurs when a liquid should be ejected, calculating corrected tone values by correcting tone values of pixels adjacent to pixels at which the liquid should be ejected from the faulty nozzle based on a correction amount, and a liquid ejecting apparatus ejecting the liquid to the adjacent pixels based on the corrected tone values. | 09-04-2008 |
20080238975 | INK-JET RECORDING APPARATUS - An ink-jet recording apparatus of the present invention records an image on a recording medium by having ink landed on the recording medium. The apparatus includes ink-jet heads, a dot position memory unit, an image data memory unit, a print data generating unit and a head controller. The dot position memory unit stores therein dot positions which include: black dot positions where only ink droplets of black ink are landed and chromatic color dot positions where only ink droplets of chromatic color ink are landed. The head controller causes the ink-jet heads to eject the ink droplets to the dot positions, so that: only the ink droplets of the black ink lands in the black dot positions stored in the dot position memory unit; and only the ink droplets of the chromatic color ink lands in the chromatic color dot positions stored in the dot position memory unit. | 10-02-2008 |
20080246793 | INK JET PRINTING METHOD AND INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS - An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printing method and ink jet printing apparatus capable of outputting a smooth monochrome photograph with indistinctive beading and conveying unevenness even in monochrome black mode for printing an image by using achromatic color inks. For this object, if it is determined that printing is carried out in the monochrome black mode, different mask patterns, such as mutually-exclusive mask patterns or mask patterns having a logical product result that shows a state where low-frequency components are less than high-frequency components, are set for two or more kinds of achromatic color inks. Use of such mask patterns suppresses the generation of grains of achromatic color inks, increases dispersibility of the grains, and also makes positions where conveying unevenness appear indistinctive. | 10-09-2008 |
20080246794 | Printing control method, printing control apparatus, medium on which printing control program is recorded - The conventional print-controlling apparatus performs printing with CMY inks and additional inks having a lower lightness than CMY inks, which are mixed in a specific ratio when ejected from the print head, so that colors in the entire range from low to high lightness are expressed. Unfortunately, chromatic color inks differing in hue from CMY inks have a low lightness or a high density, and this leads to poor granularity in the region of high lightness. This disadvantage is eliminated if color conversion is accomplished by using the granularity improvement LUT | 10-09-2008 |
20080273052 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING PRINTING PROCESSES - An apparatus for establishing ink application settings includes a Spectro-densitometer configured to determine neutral print value goals, an ink density and a correction display for matching advanced specification and improving accurate color matches. The apparatus further includes a controller configured to receive ink density readings from the spectro-densitometer, determine an ink control setting based on the received ink density readings, and display the ink control setting on the display. This is many component steps synthesized to accurately work together, at once to save many incremental and further steps in order to globally better match production prints to proofing color goals most efficiently. | 11-06-2008 |
20080303852 | Halftone printing on an inkjet printer - An inkjet printer is used to print on media an amplitude modulated (AM) halftoning pattern where dot size is varied to create different tones. Different sized dots are formed on the media by depositing different patterns of adjacent drops that coalesce into the different sized dots. | 12-11-2008 |
20080309700 | Liquid Delivery Device and Liquid Delivery Method - A liquid delivery device includes a first nozzle row that has a plurality of nozzles in a predetermined direction and delivers a first liquid. A second nozzle row has a plurality of nozzles in the predetermined direction and delivers a second liquid having a concentration different from that of the first liquid. A controller forms first dots on a medium at predetermined intervals by delivering the first liquid from the plural nozzles of the first nozzle row without using a part of the nozzles of the first nozzle row, and forms second dots on the medium at the predetermined intervals by delivering the second liquid from the plural nozzles of the second nozzle row without using a part of the nozzles of the second nozzle row such that each of the second dots is located between the first dots in the predetermined direction. | 12-18-2008 |
20090002422 | STRUCTURE FOR MONOLITHIC THERMAL INKJET ARRAY - A printhead includes a plurality of nozzle arrays disposed on a substrate. Each nozzle array is positioned on the substrate to eject droplets of a liquid spaced apart from each other on a receiver. Each nozzle array is positioned relative to other nozzle arrays such that liquid ejected from the plurality of nozzle arrays is sufficient to cover a surface of the receiver in a single relative motion of the printhead and the receiver. | 01-01-2009 |
20090002423 | METHOD OF MODULATING PEAK POWER REQUIREMENT OF MODULAR PRINTHEAD - A method of modulating a peak power requirement of a modular printhead is provided. Each module of the printhead has respective segments of each of a plurality of rows of inkjet nozzles so that each nozzle row is comprised in a respective color channel. In the method each of the modules fires a respective segment within a predetermined segment-time such that at least one of the fired segments is contained in a different color channel from at least one of the other fired segments. | 01-01-2009 |
20090046118 | MULTILEVEL SCREENING - A method of producing a printed output on a substrate is provided using a drop emitting device which is adapted to emit a plurality of ink quantities in response to a control signal. The method comprises the steps of receiving image data corresponding to a pixel of an image to be printed, the received image data comprising a tone value; generating a threshold value for use in a screening operation based on the location of the pixel within the image to be printed; mapping the received tone value to a mapped tone value using a first tone mapping, the mapped tone value being generated based on the received tone value; performing the screening operation by comparing the mapped tone value with the threshold value; mapping the received tone value to a control signal value using a first control mapping if the output of the comparison performed in the previous step indicates a first relationship, the control signal value being generated based on the received tone value; and repeating the previous three steps if the output of the comparison performed in the previous step indicates a second relationship, wherein the first mapping step comprises using an alternate tone mapping and the second mapping step comprises using an alternate control mapping. | 02-19-2009 |
20090046119 | INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS AND INK JET PRINTING METHOD - An ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method are provided which are capable of minimizing image impairments caused by a bias of satellite positions even when an odd-numbered-pass bidirectional multi-pass printing is performed. To this end, in an odd-numbered-pass bidirectional printing, a mask pattern, in which print permitted pixels and print non-permitted pixels are arranged such a way that a percentage of pixels in which predetermined two inks are permitted to be printed by scans in different directions is higher than a percentage of pixels in which the predetermined two inks are permitted to be printed by scans in the same directions, is used. This increases the probability of satellites of the two types of the inks printed in the same pixels being printed on both sides of main dots, thus allowing a uniform image to be produced even by an odd-numbered-pass bidirectional printing. | 02-19-2009 |
20090058910 | Image Forming Method, Image Forming Apparatus, and Image Forming Program and Recording Medium - An image forming method provided with the steps of: (a) providing a plurality of first nozzles for depositing a black color ink and a plurality of second nozzles for depositing color inks other than a black color ink to form a processed black color, the first nozzles and the second nozzles being mounted on a recording head of an image forming apparatus scanning relative to a recording medium in a first direction, the first nozzles shifted relative to the second nozzles in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; (b) scanning the recording head in a first direction; (c) while scanning the recording head in the first direction, for printing a black image, depositing the black color ink by the first nozzles onto a first recording position of the recording medium and depositing the color inks by the second nozzles onto a second recording position of the recording medium. | 03-05-2009 |
20090066744 | INK JET PRINTER CAPABLE OF FORMING HIGH DEFINITION IMAGES - An ink jet printer ejects ink droplets of a plurality of sizes based on image data, and prints dots of a plurality of sizes corresponding to the ink droplets of the plurality of sizes for recording the image. In the ink jet printer, in order to print a smoothing dot close to a normal dot, pulse voltage having a waveform having its printing timing changed from a waveform for printing the normal dot is applied to a piezoelectric element. As a result, an ink jet printer capable of recording high definition images can be provided. | 03-12-2009 |
20090079777 | INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS AND INK JET PRINTING METHOD - An ink jet printing apparatus is provided which can form sharp images while maintaining high grayscale levels even if the images include various kinds of image constitutional elements to be printed by image data having different attributes, such as character, fine line and image data. This invention checks attributes of the input image data corresponding to the image constitutional elements making up the images and also detects edge and non-edge portions of the image constitutional elements. Further, this invention generates print data for printing the edge portions and print data for printing the non-edge portions based on attributes of the input image data corresponding to the image constitutional elements. | 03-26-2009 |
20090079778 | INTELLIGENT PRINT MASK - A multi swath printing method for printing an image on an ink jet printing system is used to reduce image banding. The ink jet printing system includes a printhead with one or more ink ejection nozzles. The method entails forming a set of individual print masks. Each individual print mask has one or more groupings of two dimensional patterns of different frequencies and is assigned to a color of the ink jet printing system. The method ends by inputting the set of individual print masks formed into the ink jet printing system to form an input mask set and printing images using the input mask set to create an out-of-phase composite of the image printed. Banding is substantially reduced in the printed image and the printed image comprises a resolution between 300 dpi and 4800 dpi. | 03-26-2009 |
20090096827 | Image Data Generation Device, Image Data Generation Processing Program and Thermal Transfer Recording Device - An image data generation device is provided with: an image data acquisition unit for acquiring image data; a division unit for spatially dividing the acquired data by a plurality of matrices; a priority order setting element for setting the priority order for performing gradation conversion of picture elements that make up the image data that corresponds to each of the matrices, and sets the priority order so that the priority order becomes lower going from picture elements located in the center of the matrix toward picture elements located on the outside edges of the matrix; a gradation conversion member for performing gradation conversion of the picture elements according to the priority order; and an image data generation unit for generating image data for printing based on a dot pattern that is formed by the picture elements after the gradation conversion. | 04-16-2009 |
20090115811 | IMAGE FORMING METHOD AND APPARATUS - The image forming method for forming an image on a recording medium, wherein the image is divided into a plurality of regions, the method comprising: a droplet deposition rate calculation step; a dot arrangement specification step of specifying a dot arrangement pattern from the droplet deposition rate; and a droplet deposition control step of controlling droplet deposition operation in such a manner that the dot arrangement pattern specified in the dot arrangement specification step is achieved, wherein, in at least one of the plurality of the regions where the droplet deposition rate is lower than a maximum droplet deposition rate and is higher than a prescribed reference value, a dot line in a main scanning direction substantially perpendicular to the relative conveyance direction is formed in which the dots are continuously aligned so as to mutually overlap by a prescribed overlap ratio, in accordance with the droplet deposition rate. | 05-07-2009 |
20090167803 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD - An image forming apparatus which forms a halftone image on a print medium by using a multipass process to scan a printhead N (N is an integer of 2 or more) times in a single area on the print medium and form dots by each scan operation includes a pass division unit which sets the print density of a scan operation in the first pass so as to prevent dots from overlapping with each other on the print medium, and sets the print densities of scan operations in the second to Nth passes, a tone reduction unit which generates print data of the respective scan operations in accordance with the print densities set by the pass division unit, and a printhead which prints a halftone image on a print medium on the basis of the print data generated by the tone reduction unit. | 07-02-2009 |
20090167804 | IMAGE FORMING METHOD AND INKJET RECORDING APPARATUS USING THE METHOD - An image forming method is disclosed in an inkjet recording apparatus, which uses L (L≧1) kinds of ink, includes a recording head capable of ejecting “n” sizes of ink droplets M[n] (n≧1), and records an image on a recording medium by separating a tone forming region on the recording medium when the sizes of the ink droplets are determined to be M[ | 07-02-2009 |
20090167805 | IMAGE FORMING METHOD AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - There is described an image forming apparatus, which can conduct the countermeasure for eliminating an ink clogging defect with accuracy lower than a recording element arrangement resolution. The apparatus includes a defect position detecting section to detect a defect position at which no recording material is outputted; a defect position specifying section to specify a defect recording element, which resides at the defect position, and a kind of recording material to be outputted by the defect recording element; a mixture ratio determining section to determine a mixture ratio of plural recording materials, so as to make the mixture ratio of a specific recording material to be outputted by plural recording elements residing in a peripheral area of the defect position and including the defect recording element, decrease to a value lower than a normal mixture ratio, while using the normal mixture ratio for other recording elements residing in other areas. | 07-02-2009 |
20090184994 | DATA PROCESSING APPARATUS, PRINTING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CREATING MASK PATTERN - The interference between the dot arrangement pattern used for binarizing an image and the mask pattern for processing the dot arrangement pattern can be reduced and the well dispersed dot arrangement can realized by using the mask pattern. Specifically, in creating the mask, repulsive potential between the mask and the plane of dots arrangement pattern is calculated. That is, when the arrangement of print permitting pixels in the mask is determined, repulsive potential between print permitting pixels and dots on the plane of the dot arrangement pattern is calculated and print permitting pixels are arranged on the position where energy is the lowest and most dispersed. This enables print permitting pixels to be well dispersed in overlapping of the dot arrangement pattern and the mask. Consequently, as to dots formed by mask-processing and each scanning, their number is not unequally high in a specific scanning and dots are well dispersed. | 07-23-2009 |
20090195585 | Image forming method, computer-readable recording medium, image processing device, image forming apparatus, and image forming system - Disclosed is an image forming method including forming an image including plural dots by using liquid drops of recording liquid, the image including a background portion and a character portion, detecting brightness characteristics of the character portion and background portion, and switching dot addition on or off, wherein a dot with a color identical to a color of the character portion is added to a contour portion of the character portion when the dot addition is switched on. | 08-06-2009 |
20090195586 | Method Of Printing With Overlapped Segements Of Printhead - A method of printing with overlapped segments of a segmented printhead is provided in which at least one temperature sensor on the printhead measures temperatures of adjacent segments to determine an overlapped region of the adjacent segments, an overlap signal indicative of the determined overlapped region is output from the temperature sensor to a half toning circuit, and the half toning circuit adjusts, using the received overlap signal, a half toning firing pattern of a continuous tone image for coextensive nozzles of the adjacent segments within the determined overlapped region such that V | 08-06-2009 |
20090195587 | Method Of Generating Halftone Print Data For Overlapping Consecutive Printhead Segments - A method of generating halftone print data for overlapping end portions of a pair of consecutive printhead segments in an array of two or more printhead segments. Generally an end portion of a first printhead segment overlaps an end portion of a second printhead segment, in which each printhead segment includes a plurality of ink ejection nozzles. The method includes generating a dither value from a dither matrix, and then combining the dither value with an overlap signal, which represents an extent of overlap of the end portions, to produce an output value. A mathematical operation is then performed on continuous tone print data using a comparator, based on the output value, to produce the half tone data. | 08-06-2009 |
20090201330 | Printing Apparatus, and Method and Program for Controlling Printing Apparatus - A printing apparatus that measures a consumption of a colorant during printing, includes a shade level measuring unit that measures a print shade level on a print sheet, a range segment counting unit that counts the number of print sheets falling within each of a plurality of print shade range segments based on the measurement results of the shade level measuring unit, and an output unit that outputs the count results of the range segment counting unit on a per print shade range segment basis. | 08-13-2009 |
20090213161 | Printing Control System, Printing Request Terminal, Printer, Printing Control Program, and Printing Control Method - A printing control system controlling a printer performing a printing operation by ejecting a plurality of ink including specific color ink or special ink. An ejection order specifying section specifies an order of ejecting the ink when the plurality of ink including the specific color ink or the special ink is ejected to perform the printing operation. A print data generating section generates print data for controlling the ejection of the ink every rank on the basis of the order specified by the ejection order specifying section. A printing control section allows the plurality of ink to be ejected in the order specified by the ejection order specifying section by sequentially controlling the printer on the basis of the print data sequentially acquired from the first rank among the print data of all the ranks generated by the print data generating section. | 08-27-2009 |
20090244153 | Method of calculating correction value and method of discharging liquid - A method of calculating a correction value including: forming a first test pattern on a medium by using a first nozzle group and a second nozzle group and a third nozzle group of a liquid discharging device, forming a second test pattern on the medium, setting the first test pattern in a scanner, setting the second test pattern in the scanner, acquiring a read-out result of a portion formed by the second nozzle group, and acquiring a read-out result of a portion formed by the third nozzle group from a read-out result of the second test pattern as a fourth read-out gray scale value, converting the first read-out gray scale value, the second read-out gray scale value, the third read-out gray scale value, and the fourth read-out gray scale value into corrected read-out gray scale values, and calculating a correction value based on the corrected read-out gray scale values. | 10-01-2009 |
20090244154 | Method of calculating correction value and method of discharging liquid - There is provided a method of calculating a correction value. The method includes forming a first test pattern on a medium by using a first nozzle group and a second nozzle group of a liquid discharging device including a nozzle row, in which a plurality of nozzles for discharging liquid is aligned in a predetermined direction, having the first nozzle group, the second nozzle group, and a third nozzle group, forming a second test pattern on the medium by using the second nozzle group and the third nozzle group of the liquid discharging device, setting the first test pattern in a scanner, acquiring a read-out result of a portion formed by the first nozzle group from a read-out result of the first test pattern as a first read-out gray scale value, and acquiring a read-out result of a portion formed by the second nozzle group from a read-out result of the first test pattern as a second read-out gray scale value, setting the second test pattern other than the first test pattern in the scanner, acquiring a read-out result of a portion formed by the second nozzle group from a read-out result of the second test pattern as a third read-out gray scale value, and acquiring a read-out result of a portion formed by the third nozzle group from a read-out result of the second test pattern as a fourth read-out gray scale value, calculating an average gray scale value that is an average value of the second read-out gray scale value and the third read-out gray scale value, and calculating a correction value of the second nozzle group based on the average gray scale value. | 10-01-2009 |
20090244155 | Liquid ejecting apparatus and liquid ejecting method - A liquid ejecting apparatus for forming a multicolored image on a recording medium includes: a printing head for ejecting a plurality of colors; a head driving section that performs a main scanning for moving the printing head in a main scanning direction; a transporting section that transports the recording medium in a sub-scanning direction crossing the main scanning direction; and a dot control section that controls the head driving section and the transporting section so as to form an image on the recording medium by ejecting the liquids on the recording medium from the nozzle while repeatedly performing the main scanning for moving the printing head in the main scanning direction and a sub-scanning for transporting the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction. | 10-01-2009 |
20090244156 | Reduction of dependence of color appearance on light source - A look up table LUT with specific gray reproduction characteristics is used for converting RGB image data to multi-tone data of ink colors. The gray reproduction characteristics of LUT are set such that the color difference ΔE of a gray color area with an arbitrary tone level in the L*a*b* color system is kept at about 4 or less, assuming that the results are observed under two different light sources, such as standard light D50 and standard light A, respectively. | 10-01-2009 |
20090262159 | SELECTABLE GLOSS COATING SYSTEM - A coating system comprises a high gloss coating ink supply source, and a low gloss coating ink supply source. The system includes a coating module configured to receive the high gloss coating ink and the low gloss coating ink. The coating module includes a first and second group of nozzles configured to emit the high gloss and low gloss coating inks, respectively. The coating system has a controller that is configured to selectively actuate the first group and second group of inkjet nozzles to deposit the high gloss and low gloss coating inks onto the image receiving surface in accordance with a halftone pattern to form a gloss coating, the halftone pattern specifying a halftone density for the high gloss coating ink and for the low gloss coating ink, the halftone densities of the high and low gloss coating inks corresponding to a gloss level for the gloss coating. | 10-22-2009 |
20090267983 | Print Engine Controller For Image Processing Page Data - A print engine controller is provided for an inkjet printhead. The print engine controller receives page data representing a page to be printed, the page data having a bi-level black layer in a compressed format and a contone layer in a compressed format. The processor is configured to decompress the bi-level black layer and the contone layer of the page data, halftone the decompressed contone layer to form a bi-level cyan, yellow, magenta, and black (CYMK) layer, composite the decompressed bi-level black layer over the bi-level CYMK layer to form a bi-level CYMK image of the page to be printed and carry out processing operations for printing the CMYK image. | 10-29-2009 |
20090315937 | INK JET RECORDING APPARATUS - An ink jet recording apparatus includes a color processing unit that converts print data to color data, a reaction liquid ejecting unit that has plural nozzles arranged and ejects a reaction liquid onto a recording medium, an ink ejecting unit that has plural nozzles arranged and ejects an ink onto the recording medium based on the color data, a subscanning driving unit that conveys the recording medium having an image formed by the ink ejecting unit, and a controlling unit that controls to a constant value a ratio of an amount of droplets of the reaction liquid ejected by the reaction liquid ejecting unit and a total amount of ink droplets of the ink ejected by the ink ejecting unit, with respect to each of pixels of the image formed on the recording medium. | 12-24-2009 |
20100039472 | PRINTING HEAD, PRINTING DEVICE, SERIAL DATA GENERATION DEVICE, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM - A printing head of a liquid discharge type includes a printing head structure, in which head chips, each of which has overlapped nozzle regions formed before and after an effective nozzle region, are disposed such that a front end position of an effective nozzle region of a head chip and a rear end position of an effective nozzle region of another head chip, the head chips being adjacent to each other, are aligned with each other with difference in level. | 02-18-2010 |
20100045722 | CORRECTION OF PRINT ENGINE ARTIFACTS USING AN ITERATIVE HALFTONING SEARCH ALGORITHM - Methods and systems herein provide for reducing artifacts during printing. One printing system is operable to prepare a continuous tone image (CTI) for printing onto a print medium by generating an initial half tone image (HTI) based on the CTI. The printing system includes a printer and a print controller. The print controller filters the initial HTI and the CTI with a perceptual filter and determines an error between the filtered CTI and the filtered HTI. The print controller prints the HTI via the printer to determine printer artifacts and processes a scanned version of the printed HTI to determine an error between the filtered CTI and the scanned and filtered HTI. This processing updates the initial HTI and reduces the error between the filtered CTI and the filtered HTI. | 02-25-2010 |
20100045723 | INK-JET PRINTING APPARATUS AND INK-JET PRINTING METHOD - The print permitting ratios of the masks in the first to fourth passes of a C ink are respectively 6.2%, 37.5%, 37.5%, and 18.8%. On the other hand, the print permitting ratios of the masks in the first to fourth passes of an M ink are respectively 12.5%, 37.5%, 37.5%, and 12.5%. In this way, the respective masks are set such that a larger amount of the C ink is applied in a later pass as compared with the M ink. Thereby, it is possible to reduce an amount of the M ink to be applied later with respect to the C ink functioning to “reduce a permeation speed of an ink applied later by filling,” and it is possible to prevent a permeation speed from slowing down overall. As a result, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of beading due to a time to complete permeation becoming longer. | 02-25-2010 |
20100110134 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND ASSEMBLY SYSTEM OF IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes a sheet feed conveying unit having an outlet for a recording medium on one side; at least one image forming unit having an inlet for the recording medium on one side and an outlet for the recording medium on the other side; and a sheet eject conveying unit having an inlet for the recording medium on one side, wherein the sheet feed conveying unit, the image forming unit, and the sheet eject conveying unit are arranged along a conveying direction of the recording medium; the outlet of the sheet feed conveying unit matches the inlet of the image forming unit; the outlet of the image forming unit matches the inlet of the sheet eject conveying unit; and the sheet feed conveying unit, the image forming unit, and the sheet eject conveying unit are connected to each other in a separable manner. | 05-06-2010 |
20100128078 | Method of Preventing the Formation of Inkjet Printing Artifacts - A method for compensating for a tendency for droplets deposited by a plurality of nozzles of an ink jet printer to merge in the direction of printing on a substrate, comprising: identifying lines of pixels to be printed by each nozzle which have a grey level greater than a first threshold value; selecting certain of those pixels which are separated by a distance in the printing direction determined by a probability function and reducing the grey level of those certain pixels below a second threshold value so as to prevent merging of drops in the printing direction. | 05-27-2010 |
20100134550 | PRINTING CONTROL APPARATUS, PRINTING SYSTEM, AND PRINTING CONTROL PROGRAM - A printing control apparatus includes a printing unit which designates a color material amount set corresponding to a designated index by referring to a lookup table defining a correspondence between the index that specifies a target value that is information indicating a color of an object and a target color material amount set that is the color material amount set of which approximation to the target value is maximized. The target color material amount set is a second color material amount set obtained by predicting a first color material amount set based on a predetermined prediction model so that the approximation is maximized while the used amount of the low-concentration color material is suppressed and by using the first color material amount set as an initial value of the predetermined prediction model so that the approximation is maximized while the used amount of the high-concentration color material is suppressed. | 06-03-2010 |
20100141699 | PRINTING APPARATUS AND DITHER MASK - Provided is a printing apparatus that performs printing by moving a print head in main scan directions and sub scan directions relative to a printing medium, including: an input unit that inputs image data constituting an image; a halftone processing unit that converts the input image data to dot data indicating whether or not dots are formed; and a printing unit that performs printing by controlling ejection of ink from the print head based on the result of the halftone process, wherein, in a printing area where an ink duty is in a predetermined range, the printing unit forms dots by forward movement in which the print head relatively moves in one direction of the main scan directions and backward movement in which the print head relatively moves in the direction opposite to the one direction so that a forward-moving dot occurrence ratio that is a ratio of forming the dots by the forward movement and a backward-moving dot occurrence ratio that is a ratio of forming the dots by the backward movement are gradually increased with a biased magnitude relation as the ink duty is increased. | 06-10-2010 |
20100165032 | PRINT CONTROLLER FOR CONTROLLING INK JET PRINTER - A print controller is provided for generating dot data, which specifies a dot formation state and which is to be provided to a printing unit. The printing unit is configured to execute, based on the dot data, dot-forming operations to form dots in dot rows extending in a prescribed direction by moving a print head in the prescribed direction while ejecting ink droplets from nozzles in the print head and to print an image by repeatedly executing the dot-forming operation to form a plurality of dot rows juxtaposed in a direction orthogonal to the prescribed direction. The print controller includes: a printing width determining unit; a density data generating unit; and a dot data generating unit. The printing width determining unit determines a printing width value corresponding to a working distance of the print head in the prescribed direction. The density data generating unit generates density data specifying ink densities related to the quantity of ink for each pixel based on image data specifying a gradation value for each pixel and based on the printing width value, the density data generating unit generating the density data so that an upper limit on a tolerable ink density per pixel grows smaller as the working distance of the print head in the prescribed direction corresponding to the printing width value grows shorter. The dot data generating unit generates dot data by executing a halftone process on the density data generated by the density data generating unit. | 07-01-2010 |
20100177137 | PRINTING APPARATUS, DITHER MASK, AND PRINTING METHOD - There is provided a printing apparatus that performs printing while relatively moving a print head in a main scanning direction and a sub scanning direction with respect to a printing medium. The printing apparatus includes: a nozzle row that is installed on the print head and is acquired by aligning a plurality of nozzles, which ejects ink, in the sub scanning direction; a halftone processing unit that performs a halftone process by comparing each threshold value of a dither mask that is formed by a plurality of threshold values with image data that configures an image; and a printing unit that performs printing by controlling ejection of ink from each nozzle of the nozzle row by using a result of the halftone process. Here, a correspondence relationship between each position in a minimal repetition unit of a nozzle pattern indicating a nozzle out of the plurality of nozzles that is used to form a dot in each position on the printing medium and each threshold value of the dither mask that is applied to the each position is set to be constant. The dither mask includes at least one side of nozzles that are disposed on both ends of the nozzle row or frontmost-end nozzles that serve as nozzles disposed on both ends of the nozzle row in a print area having a predetermined range of an ink duty ratio. In addition, the plurality of threshold values are set such that a use ratio of front-end nozzles that is a ratio at which the front-end nozzles, which are disposed within a predetermined width from the at least one side of the frontmost-end nozzles, eject ink is lower than a use ratio of middle nozzles that is a ratio at which middle nozzles, which are acquired by excluding the front-end nozzles from the plurality of nozzles, eject ink. | 07-15-2010 |
20100207986 | Bleed Area Adjustment Technique for Use in Printing Multiple Articles of Manufacture - Techniques for creating an individual image sized to a desired print area plus a desired amount of bleed area to thereby reduce an amount of ink applied outside a desired print area are presented. In an embodiment, each of the desired print area dimensions, a default ink bleed width, and an ink bleed adjustment setting are obtained. The individual image comprises an image container sized to a desired print area plus a desired amount of bleed area. Each of the respective dimensions of the image container of the individual image is set to the corresponding respective dimension of the desired print area plus the default ink bleed width. A base image providing image content for the image container is sized to the dimensions of the image container if dimensions of the base image do not already equal the dimensions of the image container. If an adjustment to the bleed area is required, an adjustment setting indicative of a desired width of the ink bleed is obtained, and a white frame is inserted around the inside perimeter of the individual image, the white frame having a width equal to the difference between the default ink bleed width and the desired width of the ink bleed. | 08-19-2010 |
20100207987 | RECORDING METHOD, RECORDING APPARATUS AND OPERATION CONTROL PROGRAM - [Object] To provide a recording apparatus, a recording method, and an operation control program which are superior in color stability (gray balance), are capable of achieving an image quality in which dots are inconspicuous, and are capable of providing images in which phenomenon such that color varies from light source to light source is restrained. | 08-19-2010 |
20100207988 | INK-JET RECORDING APPARATUS - An ink-jet recording apparatus includes plural cartridge loading units respectively corresponding to plural ink cartridges and configured in such a manner that the respective ink cartridges are loaded therein in a reloadable manner, ink inflow ports provided to the respective plural cartridge loading units to introduce the inks accommodated in the ink cartridges to be supplied to the plural heads when connected to ink outflow ports provided to the ink cartridges, a detection unit configured to detect whether the ink cartridges are loaded in the cartridge loading units as predetermined before the ink outflow ports come into contact with the ink inflow ports when the ink cartridges are loaded in the cartridge loading units, and a notifying unit configured to notify a detection result of the detection unit in a form of a display or a sound. | 08-19-2010 |
20100214341 | COLOR PRINTING - A method of printing comprising setting a pixel black value of K for an ink limit and identifying each of black dots of a first subset of black dots having pixel black value K greater than the ink limit, and pixel color value of cyan, magenta, and yellow equal to zero. The method further comprises rendering only K for a pixel value for the first subset of black dots and replacing each of black dots of a second subset of black dots of a halftoned bit map for a predetermined area with a process black dot. The method still further comprises adding a non-black dot to each of black dots of a third subset of black dots of the bit-mapped data, wherein the halftoned bit map is generated by halftoning continuous tone data; wherein the black dots of the third subset comprises a percentage of all the black dots that tends to generally increase as a ratio of black coverage to total coverage in the predetermined area increases; wherein the first, second, and third subset comprises black dots that are mutually exclusive; and, printing the bit map. | 08-26-2010 |
20100214342 | RECORDING CONTROL SYSTEM - In a recording control system, the selecting unit selects at least one pixel from among the pixels in the detection region such that a number of the selected at least one pixel is smaller than a total number of the pixels in the detection region. The determining unit determines whether a pixel value of the selected pixel satisfies a criterion. The recording head ejects ink based on pixel data of the first region while scanning in the first direction. The recording head ejects ink based on pixel data of the second region adjacent to the first region while scanning in the first direction when the pixel value of the selected at least one pixel satisfies the criterion. The recording head ejects ink based on pixel data of the second region while scanning in the second direction when the pixel value of the selected pixel does not satisfy the criterion. | 08-26-2010 |
20100231631 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, PROGRAM, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, IMAGE FORMING SYSTEM - An image forming method is disclosed in which an image is formed on commercial printing paper using a high penetration pigmented ink by performing image processing which makes use of dot patterns corresponding to an output halftone level. | 09-16-2010 |
20100245444 | INKJET PRINTER AND PRINTING METHOD - The low and high occupancy rate matrix sets are stored in the inkjet printer which performs printing with dots having different sizes. For the original image where banding unevenness easily appears, used is the low occupancy rate matrix set where the occupancy rate of all dots is lower than 100% in the maximum value of gray level and the proportion of the large dots is high in a high range of gray level. For the original image where reproducibility of details is required, used is the high occupancy rate matrix set where the occupancy rate of all dots becomes 100% in a value of gray level lower than the maximum value of gray level and the proportion of the small dots is high in a middle range of gray level. It is therefore possible to perform appropriate printing in accordance with the classification of the original image. | 09-30-2010 |
20100245445 | PRINTING APPARATUS, PRINTING METHOD AND IMAGE PROCESSOR - A printing apparatus and a printing method are provided which, even if a print position misalignment occurs between a plurality of print scans during a multipass printing, can minimize density variations in a unit area reliably and stably, thus producing an image without density unevenness. For this purpose, multi-grayscale-level image data is converted into a plurality of dot arrangement patterns that determine individual subpixels either to be printed or not to be printed with a dot. Then, these dot arrangement patterns are printed overlappingly on a print medium in different print scans of the print head. At this time, the plurality of dot arrangement patterns are so arranged that, if these dot arrangement patterns are shifted from one another, a change in the dot-overlapping area ratio will be smaller than when the dots are arranged separately so that they do not overlap one another. | 09-30-2010 |
20100245446 | PRINTING APPARATUS AND PRINTING METHOD - In a 2M-pass printing operation that forms dots including overlapping dots, this invention makes an arrangement to ensure that the number of overlapping dots that are printed in a unit area in pairs of passes each straddling a print medium convey operation executed between an Mth pass and an (M+1)st pass is greater than the number of overlapping dots that are printed in pairs of passes straddling any other convey operation. This arrangement can cause two dots of the overlapping dots to be separated from each other in the event of a print position misalignment, preventing a possible density fall even in a unit area where the largest density reduction is feared to occur at time of the print position misalignment. | 09-30-2010 |
20100253730 | GENERATING HALFTONE PRINT DATA FOR OVERLAPPING CONSECUTIVE PRINTHEAD SEGMENTS - A method of generating halftone print data for overlapping end portions of a pair of consecutive printhead segments in an array of two or more printhead segments is disclosed. Generally an end portion of a first printhead segment overlaps an end portion of a second printhead segment, in which each printhead segment includes a plurality of ink ejection nozzles. The method includes generating a dither value from a dither matrix, and then combining the dither value with an overlap signal, which represents an extent of overlap of the end portions, to produce an output value. A mathematical operation is then performed on continuous tone print data using a comparator, based on the output value, to produce the half tone data. | 10-07-2010 |
20100289844 | HIGH SPEED PRINTING SYSTEM FOR PRINTING MAGNETIC INK - High speed printing system for printing magnetic ink systems and associated methods are disclosed. A color of the magnetic ink may be designed to resemble one of the non-magnetic inks so that instead of ejecting the one non-magnetic ink, the printing system ejects the magnetic ink. Nozzles in a printhead may also be arranged to be adjacent to each other and may be appropriately spaced without causing the inks to be mixed in the printhead. Additionally, a color transform system may be provided to transform a sheet image in accordance with ejecting at least the magnetic and the non-magnetic ink from the printhead. | 11-18-2010 |
20100309243 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, RECORDING MEDIUM, AND IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS - If an input image is black, an image is formed with a black ink and at least one color ink. A usage of the black ink per unit area is 40% to 100% of a reference usage of the black ink per unit area in a case of forming the image at the same density with only the black ink. A usage of the color ink per unit area is 2% to 20% of the reference usage. A dot of the black ink and a dot of the color are arranged at the same position. | 12-09-2010 |
20100315457 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING THE DENSITY UNEVENNESS IN AN INK JET HEAD - An apparatus for determining the density unevenness of an ink jet head includes a characteristic data generation unit calculates characteristic values about ink amounts ejected from all nozzles of the ink jet head, respectively. A decision parameter acquisition unit arranges the characteristic values in the order the nozzles are arranged and calculates a decision parameter from changes in the characteristic values about those of the nozzles, which exit in a predetermined section. A decision unit compares the decision parameter with a predetermined threshold value, thereby determining the density unevenness of the ink jet head. | 12-16-2010 |
20100315458 | DATA GENERATION APPARATUS, INKJET RECORDING APPARATUS, AND DATA GENERATION METHOD - An apparatus for generating data used to apply a plurality of inks similar in color and different in color material density, including a first ink and a second ink higher in color material density than the first ink, onto a pixel area on a recording medium with a recording head includes a generation unit configured to generate the data in such a way that out of a plurality of pixels constituting the pixel area, a number of pixels onto which dots of the first ink are applied in an overlapped manner is greater than a number of pixels onto which dots of the second ink are applied in the overlapped manner. | 12-16-2010 |
20110032299 | INKJET PRINTING METHOD AND INKJET PRINTING APPARATUS - There is provided an inkjet printing method of applying plural different kinds of color ink containing pigment as a coloring agent and clear ink not containing the coloring agent on a print medium to form an image thereon. An amount of the clear ink applied in a unit area of the print medium is adjusted based upon an amount of each of the plural kinds of the color ink applied in the unit area. Since the amount of the clear ink is adjusted based upon not only the amount but also the kind of the color ink applied in the unit area, the clear ink application amount to each unit area can be more appropriate to largely reduce the gloss variations. | 02-10-2011 |
20110057976 | PRINTING USING PLURALITY OF COLOR INK INCLUDING WHITE INK - A printing apparatus executes printing on a transparent print medium using a plurality of color ink including white ink. The printing apparatus includes: a head having a first nozzle group ejecting the plurality of color ink to form a color image and a second nozzle group ejecting the white ink and at least one kind of ink other than the white ink to form a toning white image, which is an adjusted white image; and a controller controlling the head to form a first color image, a first toning white image, a second toning white image set independently from the first toning white image, and a second color image in this order on one surface of the print medium. | 03-10-2011 |
20110074853 | PRINT DENSITY ADJUSTING DEVICE, PRINT DENSITY ADJUSTING METHOD AND PRINT DENSITY ADJUSTING PROGRAM - A print density adjusting device of print image information includes a print image information acquirer configured to acquire the print image information. A forming information acquirer is configured to acquire forming information of a medium on which an inkjet printer prints and which is to be bent. A vertex detector is configured to detect a vertex of a bent part which is to be bent based on the forming information. A bending angle detector is configured to detect a bending angle of the bent part based on the forming information. A print density adjuster is configured to adjust a print density of the print image information acquired by the print image information acquirer based on the vertex detected by the vertex detector and based on the bending angle detected by the bending angle detector. | 03-31-2011 |
20110109680 | IMAGE RECORDING METHOD AND IMAGE RECORDING DEVICE - An image recording device comprising a line head including a plurality of recording element arrays arranged in one direction such that the recording elements have overlapping regions at the mutually adjoining end portions, characterized by comprising a halftone processor for subjecting multilevel image data to a halftone process in accordance with a first half tone processing rule to form the pattern of the dots to be recorded, as a recording pattern, an allocation processor for allocating which of the recording element arrays adjoining in the overlapping regions is used to record according to the recording pattern, by using a second half tone processing rule to suppress the low-frequency component of a space frequency, and a driver for driving the recording elements so that the dot data allocated to the individual recording element arrays may be recorded by the recording elements of the individual recording element arrays contained in the line head. | 05-12-2011 |
20110122187 | Ink discharge device of inkjet head and control method thereof - Example embodiments are directed to an ink discharge device that discharges uniform amounts of ink droplets from an inkjet head, and a control method thereof. Voltages applied to plural nozzles of the ink-head are changed based on different characteristics of the respective nozzles to discharge uniform amounts of ink droplets from the nozzles. Voltage increments are calculated using a fixed target color value so as to set color value dispersion and voltage increments are calculated using different target color values according to the nozzles so as to satisfy color value differences between the neighboring pixels and thus time required for a DPN process is shortened, and excessive changes of the applied voltages are prevented and thus a preparatory period required to mass-produce an LCD panel is shortened and yield of the LCD panel is increased. | 05-26-2011 |
20110141179 | INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS AND INK JET PRINTING METHOD - This invention has a plurality of print heads, each including a first and second nozzle arrays. The different print heads are arranged so as to include an overlap area. The difference in distribution rate between the plurality of nozzle arrays for the same color is set to be larger when the number of ejections in the overlap portion is equal to or larger than the threshold than when the number of ejections in the overlap portion is smaller than the threshold. The print data for the same color is distributed among the plurality of nozzle arrays for the same color so that the number of pixels with the same ink overlap sequence as that in the non-overlap areas is larger than the number of pixels with an overlap sequence different from that in the non-overlap areas when the number of ejections is equal to or larger than the predetermined threshold. | 06-16-2011 |
20110148968 | MULTI-PASS CALIBRATION IN FIXED PRINTHEAD ARRAY PRINTERS - Methods and apparatus herein provide for automated calibration of multiple printheads used in a multi-pass printing system. Aspects hereof print a plurality of gray scale printed patterns each printed pattern corresponding to a gray scale value for each of the multiple printheads. The printed patterns are then measured to determine the intensity (e.g., optical density) of each of the printed patterns. A measurement function is derived from the measured intensity and gray scale levels used to print each pattern. Calibrated transfer functions are then determined from the measurement function and target function where each calibrated transfer function relates, for a corresponding printhead, an input gray scale level of a pixel in an image to be printed to a calibrated gray scale level to use for the corresponding printhead when operating in multi-pass mode. | 06-23-2011 |
20110148969 | INK-JET RECORDING APPARATUS AND INK-JET RECORDING SYSTEM - In an overlapping head including a plurality of recording head chips overlapped to each other, a color shift can occur between a color recorded by an overlapping region and a color recorded by a non-overlapping region, which cannot be corrected by a density correction using head shading or the like. To correct such a color shift, a test pattern is recorded by the overlapping region and the non-overlapping region and colors of the recorded test pattern are measured. Color correction data to be used in correction of colors of an image to be recorded is generated based on a result of the measurement of the colors. | 06-23-2011 |
20110148970 | INK JET PRINTING SYSTEM, INK JET PRINTING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - The present invention provides an ink jet printing system and method which allows high-quality images to be printed while improving the gloss of an image surface, as well as a relevant storage medium. According to the present invention, an image is printed using a print head including multiple nozzle arrays provided for ink in respective multiple colors and in each of which multiple nozzles configured to eject ink are arranged; the print head ejects the ink in the multiple colors onto the same print area on a print medium during multiple scans. The multiple types of ink are ejected from the print head so that the connectivity of ink dots formed on the front outermost surface of a print area is higher than that of other ink dots formed in the print area. | 06-23-2011 |
20110175961 | PRINT CONDITION SETTING METHOD IN PRINTING DEVICE - In a printing device includes a plurality of heads corresponding to black K ink and colored inks C, M, and Y, wherein the heads are extended in a direction orthogonal to a conveying direction of a medium and are disposed in parallel from the upstream side to the downstream side, and ink droplets are discharged and deposited on the medium in order from the heads while the medium is being conveyed, a print condition setting method includes the steps of setting an order in accordance with the extent of concentration irregularity in the composite colors RGB; and creating, within the discharge order of the inks, the most separation of discharge order between the two colored inks that manifest the composite color having the greatest concentration irregularity, and inserting K ink between the discharge orders of the two colored inks that manifest the composite colors having the second greatest concentration irregularity. | 07-21-2011 |
20110181648 | IMAGE PRINTING METHOD AND IMAGE PRINTING DEVICE - In an image printing method using an image printing device, a print mode of image data is set to a pure black print mode or a composite black print mode. If the pure black print mode is set, then a first monochrome processing is performed on the image data and first monochromatic image print data is generated, and a pure black printing is performed using a monochrome of K on the basis of the first monochromatic image print data. If the composite black print mode is set, then a second monochrome processing is performed on the image data, a color conversion process is performed on the image data, second monochromatic image print data is generated, and a composite black printing is performed using each color of CMYK based on the second monochromatic image print data. | 07-28-2011 |
20110221816 | LIQUID EJECTION DEVICE AND LIQUID EJECTION METHOD - A liquid ejection device includes first and second heads. A first color conversion table is for converting a tone value of a first color space of a pixel, for which the liquid is ejected from the first head, to a tone value of a second color space corresponding with a color of the liquid, and a second color conversion table is for converting a tone value of the first color space of a pixel, for which the liquid is ejected from the second head, to a tone value of the second color space. For a pixel of an overlapping portion for which the liquid is ejected from the first and second heads, a tone value of the first color space is converted to a tone value of the second color space according to a third color conversion table created based on the first and second color conversion tables. | 09-15-2011 |
20110227983 | LIQUID EJECTING APPARATUS - The liquid ejecting apparatus is adapted to eject a waste ink from a liquid ejecting head, the waste ink H comprising color inks C, M, Y, K that have been discharged from a nozzle in a recovery operation serving to recover an ejection function of the nozzle. The apparatus includes a control device configured to use a conversion table determined based on quantity ratios of the color inks C, M, Y, and K making up the waste ink to convert image data into ejection data indicating quantities of the color inks C, M, Y, and K and the waste ink that should be ejected from the liquid ejecting head. | 09-22-2011 |
20110242174 | PRINTING DEVICE, PRINTING METHOD, AND PRINT DATA CREATION PROGRAM - A printing device for discharging ink from a print head to print an image includes a detection unit configured to detect pixels of at least a high-concentration side of an edge of the image as edge pixels based on image data including plurality of pixels, a halftone processing unit configured to create dot data expressing whether or not dots are formed based on the image data, and a printing unit configured to print the image by combining together dots formed at multiple different timings in a common print region of a print medium. The halftone processing unit is configured to create the dot data so that dots are formed disproportionately towards one of the multiple timings in positions on the print medium where dots corresponding to the edge pixels are formed. | 10-06-2011 |
20110242175 | PRINTING CONTROL DEVICE AND PRINTING CONTROL PROGRAM - The information expressed by an original color image can be visually recognized even if the recording medium on which the color image has been recorded in dye ink is wetted with water. With a printing device equipped with pigment ink and dye ink, in the printing of a color image, the pigment ink corresponding to an image characteristic amount included in the color image is also injected along with the dye ink, so an image expressing the image characteristic amount included in the color image is recorded with the pigment ink, which has excellent water resistance, over the color image printed with the dye ink on the printing medium. Accordingly, in the event that the recording medium becomes wet and the dye ink bleed, the user can still make out the content of the information expressed by the original color image from the image printed in the pigment ink. | 10-06-2011 |
20110242176 | PRINTING APPARATUS, PRINTING METHOD, AND DATA GENERATING APPARATUS - The first printing mode improves gloss uniformity by setting the colorless ink discharge amount to be equal to or smaller than a reference value A at a dark image portion in input image data, and performing normal discharge printing in which printing with a colorless ink starts before completion of printing with a color ink (FIG. | 10-06-2011 |
20110242177 | PRINTING DEFVICE, METHOD FOR CONTROLLING PRINTING DEVICE, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM - A printing device includes a nozzle row for chromatic ink comprising K nozzles and a nozzle row for achromatic ink comprising (n·K) nozzles. In a color region, an image-forming operation is performed m times in which the movement direction of the nozzle rows switches alternately between forward and reverse directions, whereby a region of the image having a predetermined width is foamed along a first direction of an image. The image-forming operation performed m times includes the image-forming operation performed once in which both of the nozzle rows for chromatic ink and for achromatic ink are used, and the image-forming operation performed (m−1) times in which only the nozzle row for chromatic ink is used. In a monochrome region, the image-forming operation is performed once in which only the nozzle row for achromatic ink is used, whereby a region of the image having a predetermined width is formed. | 10-06-2011 |
20110267394 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING COLOR SEPARATION TABLE, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - The relationship between the applying amounts of colored inks and the thickness of the layer of a color material formed on a recording medium, and the relationship between the applying amount of uncolored ink and the thickness of the layer of the color material formed on the recording medium are acquired. Based on the relationships between the applying amounts and the thickness of the layer of the color material, the applying amounts of colored inks and the applying amount of uncolored ink are determined to substantially uniform the thickness of the layer of the color material when forming an image on a recording medium. A color separation table for color-separating image data is generated based on the applying amounts of colored inks and the applying amount of uncolored ink. | 11-03-2011 |
20110267395 | PRINTING DEVICE AND PRINTING METHOD - Provided is a printing device which prints an image using a metallic ink and a color ink, the device including: an input unit which inputs image data; a metallic dot formation unit which forms dot concentration dots on a printing medium using the metallic ink; and a color print unit which prints the image indicated by the image data using the color ink on the printing medium on which the dots using the metallic ink are formed. | 11-03-2011 |
20110279506 | BI-DIRECTIONAL COLOR PRINTING - A source image is converted to a printable image that is constrained to a bi-directional gamut achievable by both a forward-first print mode and a reverse-first print mode. While the printable image is printed, a print system alternates between forward and reverse passes. The print system uses a forward-first color map during the forward passes and a different reverse-first color map during the reverse passes. | 11-17-2011 |
20110285777 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, INKJET PRINTING APPARATUS AND DATA GENERATING APPARATUS - An image processing apparatus, an image processing method, an inkjet printing apparatus and a data generating apparatus are provided that can reduce, when a plurality of types of inks are used to print an image, the color unevenness that is caused by the variation of ejecting characteristics among a plurality of nozzles. A conversion table for correcting, based on an ejecting characteristic, a multi dimensional color printed by ejecting at least two types of inks on a common region on a printing medium is used to correct a plurality of color signals corresponding to these inks. | 11-24-2011 |
20110285778 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - Printing heads of combinations of four ink colors and seven printing characteristic ranks are previously used to print an image for measurement, and table parameters corresponding to all of the combinations of nozzle ink colors and printing characteristic ranks are obtained on the basis of a measurement result of this image for measurement and stored in a memory. Then, when printing is actually performed in a printer, a primary color image for measurement is printed for each nozzle of a printing head for each of four ink colors. A printing characteristic rank for each nozzle is obtained for each of four ink colors based on a measurement result of this image for measurement, and a table parameter is selected that corresponds to the same combination as the combination of the obtained printing characteristic rank of each nozzle of four ink colors, by referring to the memory. | 11-24-2011 |
20110285779 | IMAGE PROCESSOR, PRINTING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processor, a printing apparatus, and an image processing method are provided that can reduce, when a plurality of types of inks are used to print an image, the color unevenness that is caused by the variation of ejecting characteristics among a pluralities of nozzles. To realize this, for a color formed by overlapping at least two colors of inks, parameters are prepared that are determined so as to reduce the color difference in the printing medium due to the variation of the ejecting characteristic among the respective pluralities of nozzles. During printing, the parameters are used to correct the first color signal owned by the individual pixels to the second color signal. | 11-24-2011 |
20110285780 | DATA PROCESSING APPARATUS AND DATA PROCESSING METHOD - The present invention reduces an uneven color of a color having two or more colors of inks, the uneven color occurring due to manufacturing variations of ink ejection nozzles and so on. Each of a plurality of correction tables that is assigned to each predetermined number of nozzles that are used for printing on a common region in the print medium, of a plurality of nozzle arrays formed on a print head, each of the nozzle arrays ejecting a plurality of inks including a first ink and a second ink whose color is different from the color of the first ink, is generated on the basis of at least an ink ejection property of nozzles ejecting the first and second inks. | 11-24-2011 |
20110298857 | Image Processing Apparatus And Program | 12-08-2011 |
20110304667 | COLOR CONSISTENCY FOR A MULTI-PRINTHEAD SYSTEM - A printing system using multiple printheads maintains color consistency between the printheads by printing a first color patch ( | 12-15-2011 |
20110310154 | System And Method For Preserving Edges While Enabling Inkjet Correction Within An Interior Of An Image - A method for image correction preserves edges in image data stored in a printing system. The method identifies edge image data values within a plurality of image data values and excludes the identified edge image data values from the dithering of the image data values. | 12-22-2011 |
20110310155 | INKJET RECORDING HEAD AND INKJET RECORDING METHOD - The present invention provides a recording apparatus including recording heads each including a plurality of nozzle arrays that are arranged so as to overlap, wherein the width with which the overlapping portions of the recording heads for colors that are simultaneously used with a relatively high frequency overlap in an intersecting direction that intersects an array direction of nozzles is smaller than the width with which the overlapping portions of the recording heads for colors that are simultaneously used with a relatively low frequency overlap in the intersecting direction. | 12-22-2011 |
20110316921 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - When an image is recorded using a multichip recording head including a plurality of chips each having a plurality of nozzle arrays, a change in image density can occur due to a registration error between chips in an overlapping part where two chips are connected. To suppress the change in image density, input image data is distributed to two chips such that there are dots overlapping each other between the two chips in the overlapping part. | 12-29-2011 |
20120001975 | EFFICIENT DATA SCANNING FOR PRINT MODE SWITCHING - A method for printing images on an inkjet printer having grayscale print and color print modes, comprising performing an inspection process to inspect lines of image data in an inspection region downstream from a current swath of image data to determine a print mode for a future swath of image data. The inspection process includes inspecting the lines of image data in the inspection region according to a predetermined inspection sequence, determining whether an inspected line contains any pixels to be printed with color ink, and if so terminating the inspection process and designating that the future swath is to be printed with the color print mode; otherwise, if none of the lines are found to contain any pixels to be printed with color ink, designating the future swath to be printed with the grayscale print mode. | 01-05-2012 |
20120007907 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD - An image forming apparatus which forms a halftone image on a print medium by using a multipass process to scan a printhead N (N is an integer of 2 or more) times in a single area on the print medium and form dots by each scan operation includes a pass division unit which sets the print density of a scan operation in the first pass so as to prevent dots from overlapping with each other on the print medium, and sets the print densities of scan operations in the second to Nth passes, a tone reduction unit which generates print data of the respective scan operations in accordance with the print densities set by the pass division unit, and a printhead which prints a halftone image on a print medium on the basis of the print data generated by the tone reduction unit. | 01-12-2012 |
20120013665 | FLUID EJECTION PRINTING WITH AUTOMATIC PRINT MODE SWITCHING - A method of printing a document using a fluid-ejection printing device includes receiving gray scale image data for the document, and identifying at least one area fill feature of the image data. It is determined whether the at least one area fill feature will be printed with a combination of different black inks and is likely to produce a visible image defect if printed in an N-pass bidirectional print mode, where N is an integer. Non-fill regions of the image data are printed using the N-pass bidirectional print mode. The method further includes automatically switching to an M-pass bidirectional print mode for printing the at least one area fill feature when it is determined that the at least one area fill feature will be printed with a combination of different black inks and is likely to produce a visible image defect, where M is an integer greater than N. | 01-19-2012 |
20120013666 | PRINTING APPARATUS, PRINTING METHOD, AND DATA GENERATION APPARATUS - A printing apparatus and an inkjet printing method are provided that can a high-quality image without uneven glossiness and the like, without increasing the consumption of treatment liquid. The number of times of scans for applying treatment liquid to an image formed by a group of pigment inks with a large contact angle relative to treatment liquid is made to be smaller than the number of time of scans for applying treatment liquid to an image formed by a group of pigment inks with a small contact angle relative to treatment liquid. | 01-19-2012 |
20120019582 | INKJET PRINTING APPARATUS AND PRINTING METHOD - A sharp image is formed without variation in ink spreading around an outer periphery of a print-required region depending on a printing direction. At the time of printing an image by scanning a print medium with a print head for ejecting a first ink which is visible as black and has relatively high permeation properties of penetrating the print medium and a second ink having relatively low permeation properties, a printing apparatus uses the second ink to print on at least an edge area of the print-required region of the print medium, and the first ink to print on a non-edge area surrounded by the edge area. The print head comprises a first nozzle array ejecting the first ink and second nozzle arrays ejecting the second ink. The second nozzle arrays are arranged on opposite sides of the first nozzle array in the scan direction. | 01-26-2012 |
20120019583 | INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS AND INK JET PRINTING METHOD - An ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method, whereby high-permeation ink and low-permeation ink are employed to prevent a reduction in optical density is provided. The ink jet printing apparatus controls ejection of ink from print heads, so that only low-permeation ink is ejected onto the edge area of a print medium that is adjacent to a non-printing area, and this time, high-permeation ink is not employed. Further, the ink jet printing apparatus controls ejection of ink from the print heads, so that both low-permeation ink and high-permeation ink are employed for the non-edge area that is adjacent to the edge area, and to perform printing, the low-permeation ink is ejected onto the non-edge area prior to the high-permeation ink. | 01-26-2012 |
20120038697 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CORRECTING STITCH ERROR IN A STAGGERED PRINTHEAD ASSEMBLY - An improved method of measuring relative positions of adjacent printheads in a printhead array has been developed. A pair of ink dashes is made with different colors of ink from adjacent printheads and an offset distance between the dashes is determined from color density measurements of the two dashes. The offset distance may then be used to adjust the stitch alignment of the two printheads. | 02-16-2012 |
20120044293 | INKJET RECORDING APPARATUS AND INKJET RECORDING METHOD - An inkjet recording apparatus, includes: a black ink ejecting portion configured to eject a black ink containing a self-dispersion pigment; color ink ejecting portions configured to eject, respectively, a cyan ink, a magenta ink and a yellow ink which contain a polymer emulsion containing a polymer fine particle containing a coloring material which is insoluble in water or slightly soluble in water; and a recording-controlling unit configured to control recording. When the recording medium is optically transparent and is provided, on a transparent base material thereof, with an ink accepting layer, the recording-controlling unit controls recording on the recording medium such that the color ink ejecting portion is used for recording a monochrome image and a color image which has a plurality of colors, leaving the black ink ejecting portion substantially free from being used. | 02-23-2012 |
20120062636 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - There is provided an image processing apparatus in which in a case of tone-expressing one pixel corresponding to a plurality of areas (printing resolution) in a multi-pass print, it is possible to output a uniform image without graininess or density unevenness over all-tone regions from a low-density region to a high-density region. To this end, by referring to dot patterns in which a print or a non-print of dots onto each pixel (area) corresponding to a printing resolution are in advance defined, quantization data is converted into binary data having the higher printing resolution. At this time, the dot patterns are prepared to be different from each other for M times of scans in a multi-pass print of M passes. In consequence, it is possible to restrict a variation of a coverage ratio due to a printing position displacement in each printing scan. | 03-15-2012 |
20120069074 | GENERATING HALF TONE PRINT DATA FOR OVERLAPPING CONSECUTIVE PRINTHEAD SEGMENTS - A method of generating half tone print data is disclosed. The method starts by determining an extent of overlap caused by temperature variations of overlapping end portions of a pair of consecutive printhead segments. A dither value is also generated from a dither matrix, and the dither value is combined with the extent of overlap to produce an output value. A mathematical operation is performed on continuous tone print data based on the output value, to produce the half tone print data. | 03-22-2012 |
20120075374 | HIGH DENSITY INK-JET PRINTING ON A TRANSPARENCY - A method for printing on transparent medium using an ink-jet printer. The method includes providing a grayscale image having a plurality of pixels, each pixel having a pixel value corresponding to a brightness of the pixel; converting each pixel value to an ink output value for the ink-jet printer using a conversion function, wherein the conversion function maps the darkest pixel value to an optical density of greater than 2.5 and maps all other pixel values to an appropriate output pixel value such that a resulting printed image is perceived to be linearly bright across the image. | 03-29-2012 |
20120075375 | INK DISCHARGE AMOUNT ADJUSTER FOR EACH COLOR OF LINE INKJET PRINTER - Displacement information indicating a displacement amount of landing position in a main scanning direction of ink droplets discharged respectively from the nozzle of the head module of the same array of the line head of each color is acquired for each head module of the same array (steps S | 03-29-2012 |
20120081441 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND PRINTER - Provided is an image processing apparatus that can accurately and efficiently reduce color unevenness that occurs in a color image, which is formed by color mixture of a plurality of different types of inks, due to a variation in ejection characteristic among nozzles. The inks are respectively ejected from the nozzle arrays to print patches; regions where color correction for test color images should be performed are specified; a different types of color correction processing for color signals corresponding to the color correction regions are performed to print color correction patches; a color correction patch to be used is selected; on the basis of selected color correction processing, a table parameter corresponding to a nozzle is formed; when the plurality of color correction patches are formed, only correction candidate values having larger color differences than a predetermined threshold value in a uniform color space are generated for color signals. | 04-05-2012 |
20120081442 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, PRINTING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - Area information is obtained with respect to a specified color and nozzle position having color unevenness. Then, coordinate information indicating a nozzle position corresponding to the above area information is obtained in a printing head or nozzle array corresponding to an ink color relating to the specified color information. Next, the number of candidate correction values or candidate patches is obtained on the basis of nozzle coordinates obtained corresponding to the area, by referring to a table. In this table, for example, the number of candidate correction values is small at a nozzle position where an effect due to the variations of nozzle ejection characteristics such as a nozzle ejection volume is small and a change direction is constant, and the number of candidate correction values is large at a nozzle position where an effect due to variations of nozzle ejection characteristics is large. | 04-05-2012 |
20120081443 | INKJET PRINTING APPARATUS, INKJET PRINTING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSOR AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - In the present invention, joint sections and non-joint sections are formed in nozzle arrays of a plurality of chips arranged in a print head. Correction values for correcting input image data are calculated for reducing color difference caused by variation in the ejection characteristics of the nozzles. In this calculation of correction values, first a first correction value corresponding to first nozzles that form a color measurement area is calculated based on the color measurement value obtained by measuring the color of a discrete color measurement area included in a patch formed by a nozzle array. Next, a second correction value for correcting input image data corresponding to second nozzles of the nozzle array is calculated based on the first correction value. Different complementary processing is used when calculating the second correction value corresponding to a non-joint section, and when calculating the second correction value corresponding to a joint section. | 04-05-2012 |
20120081444 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, PRINTING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - Provided are an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of reducing color unevenness due to variations in ejection characteristics among a plurality of nozzles when printing an image using a plurality of inks. To that end, a first image which is made up a color with noticeable color unevenness and similar colors is printed onto a print medium. The user then specifies a color and a nozzle position where color unevenness has occurred. On the basis of these results, parameters are set for a correction table referenced by are MCS processor. In so doing, it becomes possible to address the factor causing the color unevenness, and mitigate the effects of color unevenness in a focused way without incurring increases in processor load, memory requirements, or processing time as compared to the case of calibrating all lattice points. | 04-05-2012 |
20120092404 | INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS AND INK JET PRINTING METHOD - A printing apparatus that includes nozzle arrays, formed of nozzles for ejecting ink of the first to fourth ink color groups, and that scans a print medium while moving the nozzle arrays to perform printing. For printing a unit area of a print medium, where printing is to be completed by performing a plurality of scans, the printing apparatus performs a plurality of scans, and conveys, between movements, a print medium a predetermined amount, which is equivalent to the width of the unit area. Then, to perform a plurality of scans using the nozzle arrays for the first to fourth ink color groups, print data are generated, so that for the nozzle arrays that belong to two ink color groups, the nozzle array for the first ink color group is employed to eject ink into the unit area prior to the nozzle array for the second ink color group. | 04-19-2012 |
20120092405 | Multiple Monochromatic Print Cartridge Printing Method - A printing method includes the steps of: receiving a colour image and separating the colour image into a plurality of distinct colour planes; dithering a first distinct colour plane to obtain dot data for the first distinct colour plane; dithering a second distinct colour plane to obtain dot data for the second distinct colour plane; providing the dot data for the first distinct colour plane to a first print head cartridge for printing by a plurality of nozzle rows of the first print head cartridge; and providing the dot data for the second distinct colour plane to a second print head cartridge positioned downstream from the first print head cartridge in a direction of print media propagation, the dot data for the second distinct colour plane for printing by a plurality of nozzle rows of the second print head cartridge. | 04-19-2012 |
20120113178 | PRINTING APPARATUS, COLOR CONVERSION METHOD, PROGRAM, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - A printing apparatus, which performs the printing using a polish and a colorant includes a reduction region setting portion that sets a reduction region, which is a region where an amount of the polish is reduced, at a dark portion side of a color gamut of the printing apparatus in a device-independent color space; and a color conversion portion which converts color of an image to be input to the printing apparatus into a print color to be expressed by the polish and the colorant, wherein, among pixels constituting the image, in a pixel included in the reduction region, the color conversion portion reduces the amount of the polish compared to a pixel not included in the reduction region, and converts color of the image to the print color. | 05-10-2012 |
20120120141 | Ink Discharge Apparatus And Method Of Controlling The Same - In an embodiment of the apparatus, a transparent inkjet head includes a first plurality of nozzles, and a color inkjet head includes a second plurality of nozzles. A color value measurement unit is configured to measure color values of ink applied to a plurality of pixels based on signals applied to the second plurality of nozzles of the color inkjet head and signals applied to the first plurality of nozzles of the transparent inkjet head. A control unit is configured to compare the measured color values of the ink applied to the plurality of pixels with a target value and to change the signals applied to the first plurality of nozzles of the transparent inkjet head such that the measured color values of the ink applied to the plurality of pixels are uniform. | 05-17-2012 |
20120120142 | INKJET PRINTING SYSTEM - An inkjet printing system ( | 05-17-2012 |
20120139984 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INKJET PRINTING WITH A DIFFERENTIAL HALFTONED PROTECTIVE OVERCOAT WITH GLOSS COMPENSATION - A method for operating an inkjet imaging system includes generating a coverage area map that identifies areas of an image that have different coverage area densities. Color inkjet ejectors form an image on an image receiving member, and clear inkjet ejectors eject halftone patterns on the image receiving member and on the ink forming the image. The halftone levels of the clear ink in each area on the image and image receiving member are selected in response to the coverage area density for each area. | 06-07-2012 |
20120147078 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - An ink-jet image forming apparatus for scanning a recording medium in a main scanning direction by an ink-jet head, and conveying the recording medium in a sub scanning direction so that a printing area formed at every scan by the recording head overlaps with an adjacent printing area at their boundary area. The apparatus includes a distribution determining unit that determines a dot distribution at every scan in the overlapped boundary area, a nozzle determining unit that determines an alternative nozzle capable of forming dots instead of an non-ejectable nozzle in the overlapped boundary area, and a dot determining unit that determines a dot size or a dot density from the alternative nozzle, on the basis of a printing position by the alternative nozzle and the dot distribution determined by the dot distribution determining unit. | 06-14-2012 |
20120176433 | PRINTING PLASTIC FILMS USING A DIGITAL PRINTER COMPRISING STATIONARY PRINT HEADS FOR PRODUCTION ORDERS WITH SMALL LOT SIZES - The present invention relates to a method for producing small-batch series of printed plastic films, in which the resolution and colors of the print correspond to the print generated by means of the rotogravure method, wherein the film ( | 07-12-2012 |
20120182344 | CLUSTERED HALFTONE GENERATION - A method for generating a clustered halftone representation of a continuous-tone image for printing includes applying a search technique. In the search technique, evaluation of a similarity between an initial halftone and the continuous-tone image includes application of an initialization filter to an initial error image that represents a difference between the initial halftone and the continuous-tone image. Evaluation of a similarity between each updated halftone, formed by modifying a previously-evaluated halftone, and the continuous-tone image includes application of an update filter that is different from the initialization filter to an updated error image that represents a difference between the updated halftone and the continuous-tone image. Relating computer program product and data processing system are also disclosed. | 07-19-2012 |
20120182345 | INK JET PRINTING METHOD AND DEVICE - An ink jet printing method includes the steps of: shooting an ink containing a color material in a penetrant by ink jet method to a surface of a print medium; and supplying only a penetrant containing no color material at a position on the print medium corresponding to a position at which the ink has been shot to diffuse the supplied penetrant in the print medium in order to control distribution of the color material supplied in the print medium as the ink is shot at the print medium. | 07-19-2012 |
20120194592 | COLOR PROFILE DETERMINATION FOR PRINTING SYSTEMS - Methods and systems herein provide for allowing color profiles for printers to be determined based on the types of print engines installed at the printer and the types of colorants installed at the printer. In one embodiment, a printing system including a printer is disclosed. The printer comprises a colorant system, a print engine system, and a print controller. The colorant system identifies a type of colorant installed at the printer for printing to a physical media. The print engine system identifies a type of print engine installed at the printer for printing to the media using the colorant. The print controller receives a request for the type of colorant installed at the printer and the type of print engine installed at the printer to allow for a determination of a color profile for the printer. | 08-02-2012 |
20120194593 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING INK SUPPLY AMOUNT/REGISTRATION ADJUSTMENT IN PRINTING PRESS - This invention discloses an apparatus for controlling ink supply amount/registration adjustment in a printing press. The apparatus includes a base, sensor head, sensor head moving unit, first detector, second detector, and control unit. The sensor head moving unit includes a upward/downward position adjusting unit which adjusts the upward/downward position of the sensor head. The second detector detects the upward/downward position of a color bar when color matching data of a color patch of each color in the color bar is measured by the first detector. The upward/downward position adjusting unit adjusts the upward/downward position of the sensor head based on the upward/downward position of the color bar, which is detected by the second detector. A method of controlling ink supply amount/registration adjustment in a printing press is also disclosed. | 08-02-2012 |
20120194594 | INKJET PRINTING APPARATUS AND INKJET PRINTING METHOD - There is provided an inkjet printing apparatus which performs a plurality of times of scans by a print head on a predetermined region and completes printing of the predetermined region by ejecting ink from the print head by the plurality of times of the scans, comprising generating means for performing a mask process in use of a mask to binary data of each of pixels constituting an image to be printed on the predetermined region to generate ejection data used in each of the plurality of times of the scans, wherein the mask assigns the binary data showing printing for each pixel to a plurality of times of scans among the plurality of times of the scans completing the printing to generate the ejection data for each scan of the pixel. | 08-02-2012 |
20120194595 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - While high print resolution, high image quality mode and a low print resolution, high speed mode are provided, image processes are made in common between them to the extent possible, and the same gradation characteristics and image densities can be obtained between them. For this purpose, for the high image quality mode, a dot arrangement pattern is prepared for a pixel region having gradation data of K levels, which determines the presence or absence of print dots at K-1 areas, and in which the printing of 1 dot is permitted at all of the K-1 areas. On the other hand, for the high speed mode, a dot arrangement pattern which determines the presence or absence of print dots at a number of areas less than K-1 is prepared, and in which the sum of the number of dots permitted to be printed at the pixel region is K-1. | 08-02-2012 |
20120200627 | PRINT DATA GENERATION DEVICE, PRINT DATA GENERATION METHOD, AND PRINT DATA GENERATION PROGRAM - To suppress misalignment of a line formation position resulting from main scans being performed with different timings. A printer is made to perform a printing action of acquiring image data, printing a line during an N | 08-09-2012 |
20120206526 | IMAGE RECORDING APPARATUS AND IMAGE RECORDING METHOD - An image recording apparatus has low intensity ink ejection parts for ejecting low intensity ink, and a high intensity ink ejection part for ejecting high intensity ink. With respect to a direction orthogonal to a moving direction of printing paper, a pitch of outlets in the high intensity ink ejection part is larger than that in the low intensity ink ejection part. Thus, manufacturing cost of the apparatus is reduced. With respect to each gray level in a middle grayscale range, if a tint image is recorded with the high intensity ink, a spatial frequency of this tint image is lower than that of a tint image recorded with the low intensity ink. By the above image recording control, even if the high intensity ink ejection part includes an abnormal outlet where a flight direction of droplet is abnormal, streak unevenness in a color halftone image can be suppressed. | 08-16-2012 |
20120212534 | FLUID-EJECTING DEVICE AND FLUID EJECTING METHOD - To minimize deterioration in the dispersion of dots in an overlapping region between heads, a fluid-ejecting device includes: (A) a first nozzle column having first nozzles for ejecting a fluid; (B) a second nozzle column having second nozzles for ejecting a fluid and arranged to form an overlapping region in which an end portion toward one end in the predetermined direction overlaps an end portion at another end of the first nozzle column; and (C) a controller for ejecting a fluid from the first nozzle column and the second nozzle column in accordance with dot data indicating a dot size converted from inputted image data and ejecting the fluid from the second nozzles in the overlapping region in accordance with dot data obtained from a halftone process performed after multiplying the usage rate of the second nozzle column by incidence rate data for each of the dot sizes. | 08-23-2012 |
20120218337 | COLOR PROCESSING DEVICE AND COLOR PROCESSING METHOD - Color material recording amount determination unit configured to determine a color material recording amount data according to a gradation value and colorless material recording amount calculation unit configured to determine, according to the color material recording amount data, a base colorless material recording amount data of a colorless material that is recorded as a base of the color material are included. | 08-30-2012 |
20120218338 | THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING DEVICE, THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING SYSTEM AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL PRINTING METHOD - Desired designated sections are selectively extracted from a color image to be printed, the extracted designated sections are converted into a solid black image having a high thermal energy absorbency, and the solid black image is printed on the foaming layer surface of a supplied thermal expansion sheet. Next, thermal energy is applied by a halogen lamp in a thermal expansion processing unit, causing the solid black image section to expand and rise. Furthermore, in an ink jet printer unit, a prescribed color that is a background color is printed on the entire foaming layer surface of the thermal expansion sheet including the raised sections. Furthermore, the color image to be printed is printed thereon by an ink jet recording method to obtain color image three-dimensional printed material. | 08-30-2012 |
20120229549 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image processing apparatus includes a multiple value conversion device which carries out quantization processing of original image data having multiple tones (M values) to convert the original image data to image data of N values having fewer tones than the original image data (where M and N are integers satisfying M>N≧2), wherein: the recording head has a two-dimensional nozzle arrangement where the nozzle rows are arranged in a first direction which is a direction of the relative movement between the recording head and the recording medium, and the multiple value conversion device generates the image data of N values representing a dot pattern having blue noise characteristics in the first direction and green noise characteristics in a second direction which is a direction perpendicular to the first direction on the recording medium to achieve tonal representation based on the dot pattern having these frequency characteristics. | 09-13-2012 |
20120236058 | INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING PRINTED SUBSTANCE - In printing on a material to be printed having fluff, printing with high image quality is performed while maintaining the texture of the fluff. An ink jet printing apparatus has a first printing head having an ink nozzle array for ejecting an ink containing a color material, a second printing head having a clear liquid nozzle array for ejecting a clear liquid not containing a color material and having better wettability to the material to be printed than the ink, and a control portion which controls the ejection of the ink and the clear liquid, in which the control portion has a printing execution mode in which either the ink or the clear liquid is ejected, and thereafter the other one is ejected thereon while the printing heads are relatively moving in one direction over a predetermined range of the material to be printed. | 09-20-2012 |
20120242734 | PRINTING DEVICE AND PRINTING METHOD - When dot data indicating whether or not a dot is to be formed is formed on the basis of the gradation value for each pixel, dots belonging to a plurality of pixel groups having different printing conditions are printed in a common region in an overlapping manner, and the distribution of dots in the common region has a noise characteristic possessing a peak in the spatial frequency region on the high-frequency side. In a case where first and second pixels belonging to two pixel groups are proximal pixels in the common region in a predetermined gradation range in which probabilities k1 and k2 at which a dot is formed in the first and second pixels are such that k1<0.5 and k2<0.5, a probability K of a dot in both of the proximal pixels is set to be close to k1·k2. | 09-27-2012 |
20120249646 | INKJET PRINTING APPARATUS AND INKJET PRINTING METHOD - An inkjet printing apparatus and an inkjet printing method capable of suppressing generation of bronze phenomenon regardless of the color gamut is provided. For this purpose, in multipass printing, there are set more pixels permitted to print by at least one type of achromatic color ink than pixels permitted to print by chromatic color ink in the last print scan to a unit region. Accordingly, it becomes possible to apply achromatic color ink having a high bronze phenomenon reduction effect on the topmost layer of the print medium, and thereby generation of bronze phenomenon can be suppressed without any hue shift. | 10-04-2012 |
20120287193 | PRINTING DEVICE AND PRINTING METHOD - A printing device using a print head ejecting ink from a plurality of nozzles to print ink dots of a plurality of dot diameters, includes a print-characteristic acquisition unit obtaining print characteristic information on dot diameters of ink dots to be printed per each predetermined portion of the plurality of nozzles, a distribution ratio determination unit determining a distribution ratio for distributing image data to the predetermined portions of the plurality of nozzles based on the information, a dot print position determination unit quantizing the image data to determine a dot print position based on the image data and sizes and an array of thresholds; and a plurality of masks based on dot distribution order determined according to the distribution ratio, distributing printing of each of the ink dots of the plurality of dot diameters to the dot print position determined by the dot print position determination unit. | 11-15-2012 |
20120287194 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - Adequate correction processing is performed on image data based on the degree of ink concentration that occurs even. An image processing apparatus having: acquisition unit for acquiring multi-value image data and a first parameter related to the degree of concentration of ink; first generation unit for generating corrected data by correcting the multi-value data that is to be printed for the first pixel based on the multi-value data that is to printed in the first pixel and a first parameter; and second generation unit for generating the first parameter and a second parameter that indicates the degree of ink concentration of the plurality of nozzles when printing a second pixel that is printed by the nozzles next to the first pixel. | 11-15-2012 |
20120313992 | PRINTING APPARATUS AND PRINTING METHOD - A printing apparatus including a head section which discharges a color ink which is cured due to irradiation of light and a clear ink which is cured due to the irradiation of light, an irradiation section which irradiates the light, and a storage section which stores a relationship between a total amount of color duty which is an amount of the color ink which is discharged per unit region and clear duty which is an amount of the clear ink which is discharged per unit region, and glossiness of an image which is printed using the color ink and the clear ink which have been discharged, wherein, according to the color duty in a certain region in the image, the clear duty in the region is determined based on the relationship so that the glossiness of the image is a predetermined value. | 12-13-2012 |
20130010023 | Printing Apparatus and Printing Method - A printing apparatus that generates printed matter composed of a plurality of printing layers, wherein the apparatus includes an ink amount selection unit that selects an ink amount that corresponds to each of printing layers using a profile that regulates the correspondence relationship between the component values of input color data and the ink amount in each of the printing layers; and a print execution unit that generates the printed matter by adding layers of printing layers to a medium based on the selected ink amount, wherein in the profile, the ink amount of each printing layer is regulated so that the number of dots that are formed by a first ink and the number of dots that are formed by a second ink with a lower concentration than the concentration of the first ink change according to the printing order of each printing layer. | 01-10-2013 |
20130021400 | LIQUID EJECTION VOLUME CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHOD, PROGRAM AND INKJET APPARATUS - An apparatus includes: a first lookup table storage device which stores a first lookup table; a second lookup table storage device which stores a second lookup table; a halftone table storage device which stores a halftone table; a third lookup table generating device which generates a third lookup table by extracting a portion of the data from the second lookup table; a third lookup table storage device which stores the third lookup table; an evaluation processing device which performs calculation for evaluating a liquid ejection volume, on the basis of the evaluation input signal, the first lookup table, the third lookup table, the halftone table and the liquid volume per dot; and an adjusting device which adjusts the ejection volume on the basis of the evaluation results, in such a manner that the liquid ejection volume does not exceed a specified value. | 01-24-2013 |
20130021401 | INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS - An ink jet printing apparatus includes a head that is provided with nozzle holes for ejecting ink, and a control unit that performs a plurality modes, and the plurality of modes includes a first image printing mode of ejecting white-based ink from the nozzle holes to adhere the white-based ink to a first area of a printing medium and a second area different from the first area to print an image, and a second image printing mode of substantially concurrently ejecting color ink and resin ink from the nozzle holes to contact and adhere the color ink and the resin ink onto the white-based ink of the first area to print an image, and ejecting resin ink from the nozzle holes to adhere the resin ink onto the white-based ink composition of the second area to print an image. | 01-24-2013 |
20130076825 | COLOR MEDICAL IMAGING ON FILM - A method of printing a high density image. An image is accessed, wherein the image has a plurality of pixels, and each pixel has an r,g,b value. For each pixel, each r,g,b value is separated into separate grayscale components and color components. A lookup table is applied to each grayscale and color component to generate an ink value for each of the print heads. The ink values are combined to produce a final ink output value for each pixel, and the final ink output values are employed for printing on medium using an ink-jet printer. | 03-28-2013 |
20130100192 | PRINTING NEAR SATURATION - A printer is disclosed. The printer prints colors near saturation using mostly a first ink and prints saturated colors using mostly a second ink. The second ink has a reduced loading of the colorant in the first ink. | 04-25-2013 |
20130106936 | METHOD AND SYSTEMS FOR CREATING A PRINTER MODEL BASED ON PRINT COLUMNS | 05-02-2013 |
20130106937 | PRINTING APPARATUS, PRINTING METHOD, AND PRINTING PROGRAM | 05-02-2013 |
20130113856 | DATA GENERATION APPARATUS, INKJET RECORDING APPARATUS, AND DATA GENERATION METHOD - An apparatus for generating data used to apply a plurality of inks similar in color and different in color material density, including a first ink and a second ink higher in color material density than the first ink, onto a pixel area on a recording medium with a recording head includes a generation unit configured to generate the data in such a way that out of a plurality of pixels constituting the pixel area, a number of pixels onto which dots of the first ink are applied in an overlapped manner is greater than a number of pixels onto which dots of the second ink are applied in the overlapped manner. | 05-09-2013 |
20130147870 | PRINTING METHOD FOR THREE-DIMENSIONAL PAINTING BY UV DIGITAL PRINTING DEVICE - A printing method for three-dimensional painting by UV digital printing device has acts of: First, preparing a printing device having a white print set and a color print set. Second, moving the printing device transversely from one side to the other side of an object for multiple times, wherein the two print sets respectively print on two adjacent zones. Third, moving the printing device longitudinally to next zone on the object. Fourth, repeating the second and third acts until the printing device moves over a last zone on the object. The printing device moves longitudinally after the printing device moves transversely to and fro to finish the height of a zone. Thus, the printing device completes all the heights and the colors in one time of longitudinal moving. Then printing consumes less time and the printing device therefore does not have to be orientated again. | 06-13-2013 |
20130147871 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - At least two dot formers are provided for each of a plurality of colors. Dot formers, which form dots in a particular color, are disposed at a greater interval along a direction perpendicular to an array direction of dot forming elements than intervals along the direction perpendicular to the array direction at which other dot formers, which form dots in the remaining colors, are disposed. | 06-13-2013 |
20130155137 | Method and System for Split Head Drop Size Printing - A method for operating an inkjet printer to form images that include both high density and low density segments has been developed. The method includes operating one printhead to eject ink drops with a large size to form high density segments of the image, and operating a second printhead to eject ink drops with a small size to form low density segments of the image. The large ink drops provide high coverage in the high density segments, and the small ink drops provide improved image quality in the low density segments of the image. | 06-20-2013 |
20130194338 | PRINTED DROP DENSITY RECONFIGURATION - A continuous printer system includes a jet control element, associated with each nozzle bore of an array of nozzle bores, which is selectively actuated to form or steer or form and steer print drops from a liquid stream emitted from the associated nozzle bore. A memory element associated with the inkjet printer is selectively loaded during a printing operation with data that modifies the subsequent actuation of each of the jet control elements to form or steer or form and steer print drops that print pixels on a receiver in a second regularly spaced pixel grid, the second regularly spaced pixel grid having a second spatial density of pixels extending in a direction perpendicular to a travel path of the receiver that is different when compared to a first spatial density of a first regularly spaced pixel grid. | 08-01-2013 |
20130194339 | PRINTED DROP DENSITY RECONFIGURATION - A method of printing includes selectively loading a memory element during a printing operation with data that modifies a subsequent actuation of jet control elements to form or steer or form and steer print drops that print pixels on a receiver in a second regularly spaced pixel grid, the second regularly spaced pixel grid having a second spatial density of pixels extending in a direction perpendicular to a travel path of the receiver that is different when compared to a first spatial density of a first regularly spaced pixel grid, printing pixels on the receiver in the second regularly spaced pixel grid, and catching drops that are formed but not used to print pixels on the receiver in the first regularly spaced pixel grid or used to print pixels on the receiver in the second regularly spaced pixel grid. | 08-01-2013 |
20130215180 | Printing Apparatus and Printing Method - A printing apparatus that prints onto a printed object using a special glossy ink and a color ink includes a control unit that executes the print adding the special glossy ink to locations in which the pixels formed by the color ink have a maximum luminance or saturation. | 08-22-2013 |
20130235108 | INKJET RECORDING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An inkjet recording apparatus includes: a registration shift amount setting device configured to relatively set, between inkjet heads corresponding to colors different to each other, a registration shift amount of recording positions in a nozzle row direction of the inkjet heads; an interpolated image generating device configured to generate, in accordance with the registration shift amount, image data of an interpolated image from, among original image data representing tone values of the respective colors, the original image data of one of the colors corresponding to the inkjet head for which the registration shift amount has been set; a halftone processing device configured to generate color-specific halftone images by performing halftone processing on the image data of the interpolated image and the original image data of the other colors; and an ejection control device configured to control ejection operations of the inkjet heads in accordance with the color-specific halftone images. | 09-12-2013 |
20130249989 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - An image processing apparatus includes an acquiring unit which acquires first image data indicating a first gray-scale value of an image having a first attribute and a second image data indicating a second gray-scale value of an image having a second attribute that is different from the first attribute, a correcting unit which corrects the first gray-scale value and the second gray-scale value acquired by the acquiring unit on basis of information on an ejection characteristic of a discharge head to different extents, the discharge head ejecting liquid to be used for forming the first image and the second image on a recording medium with dots. | 09-26-2013 |
20130257955 | THRESHOLD MATRIX GENERATION METHOD, IMAGE DATA GENERATION METHOD, IMAGE DATA GENERATION APPARATUS, IMAGE RECORDING APPARATUS, AND THRESHOLD MATRIX - A threshold matrix generation part determines a turn-on order in a matrix area where a threshold matrix is generated and determines a threshold value of each matrix element. In determining the turn-on order, a temporary evaluation value element is obtained based on a distance between each undetermined matrix element whose position in the turn-on order has not been determined and each determined matrix element. If these matrix elements are located in the same position with respect to a row or column direction, the temporary evaluation value element is corrected such that the undetermined matrix element is less evaluated based on the evaluation value. Then, the position of an undetermined matrix element that is most highly evaluated in the turn-on order is determined. Accordingly, a threshold matrix that suppresses the occurrence of a grid-like dot pattern can be provided. | 10-03-2013 |
20130265357 | PRINTING DEVICE AND PRINTING METHOD - A printing device, which prints an image on a recording medium using a printing head which has a nozzle row, where a plurality of nozzles are aligned in a first direction, for each color of ink, comprising: a printing control section which executes a plurality of cycles of a dot forming action, where dots are formed on the recording medium along a second direction which intersects with the first direction by discharging ink from the nozzles while the printing head is moved in the second direction, and a transport action, where the recording medium is relatively transported in the first direction with regard to the printing head after completion of the dot forming action. | 10-10-2013 |
20130286074 | Inkjet Nozzle Flushing Mechanism - A method is disclosed. The method includes receiving print job data, rasterizing the print job data to generate image data for each page of the print job data to be printed, calculating a coverage per unit area for two or more color planes of each page of the image data and calculating a flushing mask to flush nozzles of the inkjet print head. | 10-31-2013 |
20130293615 | IMAGE CORRECTION SYSTEM AND IMAGE CORRECTION METHOD - Every time density correction information corresponding to a colorimetric value of a patch is acquired, the time when the density correction information is acquired and the type of a printing medium on which the patch is printed are accumulated in association in a memory. The type of a medium for printing is specified by a user; density correction information acquired at the most up-to-date time for each chromatic color ink available for the medium of that type is read from the memory; it is determined whether or not the most up-to-date time when the density correction information is acquired for each of the chromatic color inks available for the specified medium is the same time; if the most up-to-date times are the same, density correction is performed on image data, using a correction table that corresponds to the density correction information acquired at the most up-to-date time. | 11-07-2013 |
20130300791 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, INKJET PRINTING APPARATUS, AND INKJET PRINTING METHOD - In a color mode, among clear ink data CL | 11-14-2013 |
20130300792 | PRINTING APPARATUS AND PRINTING METHOD - A control section is included which performs a background image pre-printing which enables each ink to be ejected from the upstream side background color nozzle row and the downstream side color nozzle row and can land the color ink after landing the background color ink on the medium in a region concerning the transport direction, and a background image post-printing which enables each ink to be ejected from the upstream side color nozzle row and the downstream side background color nozzle row and can land the background color ink after landing the color ink on the medium in a region concerning the transport direction, the control section performing the printing so as to switch over the background image pre-printing and the background image post-printing on one medium. | 11-14-2013 |
20130300793 | METHOD FOR PRINTING MARKING MATERIAL ON A RECEIVING MEDIUM BY A PRINTING SYSTEM - A method obtains color consistency over at least one printing system in order to print a digital image containing pixels and color information of the primary colors per pixel. Each printing system includes at least one engine including a plurality of containers, each of the containers containing a marking material having a primary color. The method includes the steps of, for each primary color, determining a target color which is printable by each engine on the receiving medium, determining for each container how much marking material must be ejected to establish the target color, and for each pixel of the digital image to be printed by an engine, replacing each primary color of the pixel by a corresponding target color, and printing the pixel by ejecting marking material from the containers of the engine according to the determined marking material per target color per container of the engine. | 11-14-2013 |
20130328958 | PRINTING DEVICE AND PRINTING METHOD - A printing device which prints onto a printing medium comprising: a printing head; a control section which moves the printing head in a scanning direction and relatively moves either of the head or the printing medium in a direction which intersects with the scanning direction; and a discharge control section, wherein the printing head is provided with a plurality of color nozzle rows which are arranged to line up in the intersecting direction and where a plurality of nozzles which discharge the same color of color ink are arranged in the intersecting direction for each of the color nozzles rows, and a black ink nozzle row which is a nozzle row, which is arranged to line up with the color nozzle rows and discharges black ink, and which has a black ink nozzle group of the same number as the number of rows of the color nozzles. | 12-12-2013 |
20130335473 | System and Method for Printing Full-Color Composite Images in an Inkjet Printer - An inkjet printer includes a plurality of color separation modules. Each color separation module includes an image receiving member and a printhead module configured to eject ink drops onto the image receiving member to form a color separation on the image receiving member. The printer is configured to transfix each color separation on each image receiving member to a single sheet to produce a composite ink image on the print medium after the print medium has passed by all of the color separation modules in the printer. | 12-19-2013 |
20130335474 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME - An image processing apparatus for forming an image with a plurality of recording element arrays, grouped together on a plurality of recording heads, on a same area of a recording medium. The image processing apparatus sets recording data of each of the recording element arrays from input image data, and a halftone processing unit generates halftone image data to be recorded by each of the recording element arrays by performing halftone processing on the recording data of each of the recording element arrays, which is set by the setting unit. Halftone image data pieces corresponding to at least a pair of recording element arrays located on a same recording head are in phase with each other in a wider frequency band than halftone image data pieces corresponding to at least a pair of recording element arrays located on different recording heads. | 12-19-2013 |
20140022297 | FLUID EJECTION SYSTEM AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING EJECTION OF FLUID FROM A FLUID EJECTION NOZZLE ARRAY - The invention relates to a fluid ejection system comprising a print head unit including a fluid ejection nozzle array, wherein the fluid ejection nozzle array comprises at least a first set of nozzles having nozzles of a first fluid ejection capacity and a second set of nozzles having nozzles of a second fluid ejection capacity and nozzles of a third fluid ejection capacity, wherein the first fluid ejection capacity, the second fluid ejection capacity and the third fluid ejection capacity are different from one another, and further including a printer controller which, in a first printing mode, selects nozzles of the first and second sets for firing in proportions so that the overall color densities generated by the nozzles of second set when compared to nozzles of the first set are the same in a defined print area. | 01-23-2014 |
20140043386 | INKJET RECORDING APPARATUS - Curing processing is realized according to differences in absorption characteristics of activation light among inks and characteristics of layers to be formed with the inks. A scanning device reciprocally moves in a first direction an inkjet head including a first nozzle array ejecting a first ink and a second nozzle array ejecting a second ink; a relative movement device relatively moves a recording medium in a second direction with respect to the head; an ejection control device divides the nozzle array into regions in the second direction and controls ink ejection for each unit of the divided nozzle region; an activation light irradiation device irradiates the inks deposited on the medium with the activation light; an irradiation region dividing device divides an irradiation range into divided irradiation regions corresponding respectively to the divided nozzle regions; and a light quantity control device controls light quantities respectively for the divided irradiation regions. | 02-13-2014 |
20140055516 | PRINTING APPARATUS AND PRINTING METHOD - Provided is a printing method using a printing apparatus. The printing apparatus includes a head that has a nozzle array, in which a plurality of nozzles for ejecting a black pigment ink is arranged, and a nozzle array in which a plurality of nozzles for ejecting a color ink is arranged. The printing method includes: a step of acquiring image data of an image to be printed on a medium; a step of ejecting the black pigment ink onto the medium on the basis of the image data; and a step of ejecting the color ink onto the medium on the basis of the image data. A supply capability of the pigment ink supply section is higher than a supply capability of the color ink supply section. | 02-27-2014 |
20140055517 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD - An image forming apparatus configured to form a plurality of dots on a recording medium by ejecting ink droplets includes: a recording head configured to eject the ink droplets of a plurality of colors including similar colors, which are colors of which densities or hues are equal to each other; a transporting unit configured to relatively move the recording head and the recording medium; a head driving circuit configured to perform a driving control of the recording head based on a control signal; and an image processing unit configured to convert an input image signal into a control signal to be supplied to the head driving circuit in a manner so that the dots of the similar colors are formed to be overlapped at a same position at a lower rate in a low density gradation range and at a higher rate in a high density gradation range. | 02-27-2014 |
20140055518 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, PRINTING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD - Provided are an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of reducing color unevenness due to variations in ejection characteristics among a plurality of nozzles when printing an image using a plurality of inks. To that end, a first image which is made up a color with noticeable color unevenness and similar colors is printed onto a print medium. The user then specifies a color and a nozzle position where color unevenness has occurred. On the basis of these results, parameters are set for a correction table referenced by an MCS processor. In so doing, it becomes possible to address the factor causing the color unevenness, and mitigate the effects of color unevenness in a focused way without incurring increases in processor load, memory requirements, or processing time as compared to the case of calibrating all lattice points. | 02-27-2014 |
20140063105 | INKJET PRINTING METHOD USING MODE SWITCHING - A method for printing an input digital image using and inkjet printer being adapted to print horizontal strips of print image data using one or more print passes. The method includes determining print image data and control channel image data for a particular strip responsive to input code values for corresponding input pixels, the control channel image data providing an indication of the number of print passes that should be used to print the input code values. A number of print passes for the particular strip is determined responsive to the control channel image data, and the inkjet printer is controlled to print the particular strip of print image data using the determined number of print passes. | 03-06-2014 |
20140063106 | Nano-Ranged Wide Color Gamut and Environmental-Friendly UV Inkjet Printing System - The present invention provides a nano-ranged wide color gamut and environmental-friendly UV inkjet printing system for a hard substrate comprising a carrier, an ink supplier, a printing head and a controller. The carrier receives the hard substrate thereon and the ink supplier includes a container space for containing an ink. The color gamut of the ink comprises basic colors of RYBK. The printing head receives the ink from the ink supplier, and the controller generates a control signal to control the printing head to spray coating the ink onto the surface of the hard substrate directly. The present invention is able to print the ink directly onto the surface of the hard substrate while utilizing the UV light for curing the ink into solid. The ink exhibits the physical properties of low surface tension, nano particles, environmental friendly, UV excitable, short duration of drying, great adhesiveness and high transparency. | 03-06-2014 |
20140063107 | DOT DATA GENERATING METHOD, DOT DATA GENERATING DEVICE, INKJET RECORDING DEVICE, AND INKJET RECORDING SYSTEM - In a case where a first image is printed on a recording medium based on first dot data using the first inkjet recording device and a second image is printed based on second dot data on another recording medium using the second inkjet recording device in which ejected ink drops land onto a recording medium with a small degree of dispersion in a main scanning direction compared to the first inkjet recording device, the first dot data is converted to generate the second dot data such that data of a large dot and a medium dot is converted so as to form a plurality of dots having sizes smaller than the dot size at predetermined intervals between the dots in the main scanning direction in place of the large dot and the medium dot. | 03-06-2014 |
20140098152 | IMAGE PRODUCING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PRODUCING METHOD - A control signal is generated, so that if dots, which are formed in a transverse direction across a recording medium, are classified into plural groups depending on a plurality of timings, then preceding dots, which belong to a group having an earliest timing, are formed in a pale color. A head drive circuit controls a recording head based on the generated control signal. | 04-10-2014 |
20140104337 | Image processing device, Image processing system, and image processing method - An image processing device for forming an image on a medium includes an image data acquiring part and an expanding part. The image data acquiring part is configured to acquire an image data used for forming the image. The expanding part is configured to expand, based on a correspondence relationship for expansion, the acquired image data into a plurality of printing data. | 04-17-2014 |
20140125725 | PRINT CONTROL APPARATUS AND PRINT CONTROL METHOD - A print control apparatus capable of carrying out printing on a print medium using metallic ink, controls unevenness of a metallic ink layer formed by the metallic ink on the print medium and also controls coarseness and fineness of dots of the metallic ink on the print medium. | 05-08-2014 |
20140152732 | IMAGE RECORDING APPARATUS, AND RECORDING DENSITY CORRECTION METHOD AND EJECTION TIMING CORRECTION METHOD - An image recording apparatus includes a head for ejecting ink, a moving mechanism for moving a recording medium, and a control part for controlling these constituent elements. The control part includes an information storage part, a conversion part, and a correction part. The conversion part converts input image data into converted image data which is suitable for image recording. The information storage part stores an LUT indicating a relation between the input image data and the converted image data for each head and each type of recording medium. The correction part updates the LUT on a representative recording medium on the basis of correction amounts determined in accordance with reference images which are recorded onto the representative recording medium and further updates the LUT on another type of recording medium. By virtue of providing this correction part, it is possible to simplify a correcting operation of recording densities. | 06-05-2014 |
20140168306 | INKJET PRINTING APPARATUS - An inkjet printing apparatus includes two or more units. Each of the two or more units has a drive circuit, a nozzle row including a plurality of aligned nozzles configured to be driven by the drive circuit to eject ink, and an ink discharge passage configured to discharge a remainder of the ink supplied to the nozzles of the nozzle row from the nozzle row. The ink discharge passage of a first unit of the two or more units and the drive circuit of a second unit of the two or more units are thermally in contact with each other. The ink discharge passage of the second unit and the drive circuit of the first unit are thermally in contact with each other. | 06-19-2014 |
20140176633 | INK JET PRINTING METHOD AND PRINTER - A method of printing a spit pattern for an inkjet printer includes selecting a dot distance between dots of the spit pattern, selecting at least a sub-matrix of a dither matrix of entries arranged in rows and columns, constructing a bi-level bitmap of the same size as the sub-matrix, splitting each column of the bi-level bitmap which has more than one entry having a value of one into a number of columns such that each column of the number of columns comprises one entry having a value of one, removing each column of the bi-level bitmap which has no entry having a value of one, extracting the row and column number of each entry of the bi-level bitmap having a value of one, adapting the row number of each extracted entry in accordance with the dot distance, and printing the spit pattern. | 06-26-2014 |
20140184684 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE - A calculator calculates a total value of tone values of all pixels in each aggregation by allocating each pixel of M-valued image data to one aggregation. Each block is either one of ejection-port groups including ejection ports having a common liquid channel serving as a liquid supply source or one of divided ejection-port groups. Each aggregation includes pixels of the M-valued image data corresponding to dots formed on a medium when liquid is ejected from ejection ports in one block during one L ejection period. Each L ejection period is obtained by dividing, by a plural number, a number of ejection cycles required to record an image on one recording medium. A tone-value reducer reduces tone values of at least part of pixels in an adjustment-requiring aggregation so that the total value becomes less than a threshold. A transmitter transmits the adjusted M-valued image data to a liquid ejecting device. | 07-03-2014 |
20140184685 | MULTIPLE MONOCHROMATIC PRINT CARTRIDGE PRINTING METHOD - A printing method includes the steps of: receiving a colour image and separating the colour image into a plurality of distinct colour planes; dithering a first distinct colour plane to obtain dot data for the first distinct colour plane; dithering a second distinct colour plane to obtain dot data for the second distinct colour plane; providing the dot data for the first distinct colour plane to a first print head cartridge for printing by a plurality of nozzle rows of the first print head cartridge; and providing the dot data for the second distinct colour plane to a second print head cartridge positioned downstream from the first print head cartridge in a direction of print media propagation, the dot data for the second distinct colour plane for printing by a plurality of nozzle rows of the second print head cartridge. | 07-03-2014 |
20140218431 | PRINTING DEVICE, PRINTING METHOD AND PROGRAM THEREOF - A printing device includes the following features. The first dot group in which dots are formed based on the first printing condition and the second dot group in which dots are formed based on a printing condition which is different from the first printing condition are formed together in a common region. In the common region, when the printing is performed in a plurality of conditions such that a difference of the dot pitch between a formation position of dots belonging to the first pixel group and a formation position of dots belonging to the second pixel group is 2/720 inch to 5/720 inch, the change in CIEL*a*b* of the printed image is within the preliminary determined range. | 08-07-2014 |
20140232775 | PRINTING APPARATUS AND PRINTING METHOD - A printing apparatus including a head section which discharges a color ink which is cured due to irradiation of light and a clear ink which is cured due to the irradiation of light, an irradiation section which irradiates the light, and a storage section which stores a relationship between a total amount of color duty which is an amount of the color ink which is discharged per unit region and clear duty which is an amount of the clear ink which is discharged per unit region, and glossiness of an image which is printed using the color ink and the clear ink which have been discharged, wherein, according to the color duty in a certain region in the image, the clear duty in the region is determined based on the relationship so that the glossiness of the image is a predetermined value. | 08-21-2014 |
20140240387 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes: a classification unit configured to classify ink colors to be superimposedly ejected in a region with a color tone change within a color image formed on a print sheet into a reference color exempted from an ejection timing correction and a correction color subjected to the ejection timing correction, for each line, based on information on comparison between minimum drop numbers acquired by a drop number acquisition unit and information on comparison between drop number distributions acquired by a distribution acquisition unit; a correction scheme acquisition unit configured to acquire a correction scheme of the ink ejection timing of the correction color in the region, for each line; and a correction unit configured to correct the ink ejection timing of the correction color in the region with the correction scheme acquired by the correction scheme acquisition unit, for each line. | 08-28-2014 |
20140247300 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING A PRINTING IMAGE MADE UP OF SECTIONS ON A MATERIAL TO BE PRINTED USING TWO INKJET PRINTING HEADS - A method produces a printing image formed of sections on a material using two inkjet printing heads. The printing image has first and second printing image sections meeting at a y coordinate Y1. The method includes choosing a data stripe extending in the x direction having a width about the location Y1, and examining the data in the selected stripe for a data field of the extent dx in the x direction and dy in the y direction, in which edge detection is possible. The data field is selected and the x coordinate x1 and the y coordinate y1 of the data field are captured. The printing image is then produced. An image of a measurement field correlated to the data field is recorded. The image is recorded, and edge detection is carried out. The image is corrected when an edge is detected. | 09-04-2014 |
20140253621 | PRINTING METHOD AND PRINTING APPARATUS - The invention relates to a printing method of creating an image on a medium by discharging a plurality of colored inks each containing a colorant and clear ink containing no colorant from a nozzle toward the medium. Further the colored inks are discharged from the nozzle toward a unit region defined in the medium by an amount determined on the basis of respective amounts of cyan ink and magenta ink included in the colored inks to be discharged to the unit region. | 09-11-2014 |
20140292873 | IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE - A corrector performs designating a target pixel belonging to a pixel array corresponding to an ejection port, the target pixel being designated sequentially as one of pixels arranged in an array direction, the pixel array being formed with the pixels in the N-value image data corresponding to dots formed by the ejection port respectively, allocating a corresponding one of N representative tone values out of L tone values of L tones to a tone value of the target pixel of the N-value image data, adding the correction value to a representative tone value of the target pixel, thereby obtaining a corrected tone value of the target pixel, quantizing the corrected tone value of the target pixel to N tones; and diffusing an error generated in quantizing the corrected tone value to the corrected tone value of an adjacent pixel adjacent to the target pixel in the array direction. | 10-02-2014 |
20140307017 | RECORDING APPARATUS AND RECORDING METHOD - In a recording apparatus, a dot diameter of a first color ink formed by discharging a predetermined amount of the first color ink onto a surface of a second color ink fixed on a recording medium is smaller than a dot diameter of the second color ink formed by discharging the predetermined amount of the second color ink onto a surface of the first color ink fixed on the recording medium, and a recording head discharges the plurality of inks such that with respect to pixels forming an image in a unit area, pixels formed by discharging the second color ink and the first color ink in this order are greater than pixels formed by discharging the first color ink and the second color ink in this order. | 10-16-2014 |
20140354726 | MULTI-LAYER PRINTING ON NON-WHITE BACKGROUNDS - In a multi-layer printer, the base white layer that is applied during printing is modified using the image to be printed. By altering the white layer to reflect the density of the top image, it is easier to reach saturation (density/gamut) without adding large amounts of ink. Thus, such undesirable side effects, such as gloss-banding are avoided. | 12-04-2014 |
20140354727 | IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE, RECORDING MEDIUM AND IMAGE FORMATION DEVICE - An image processing method includes: forming a density unevenness measurement test image based on image data subjected to unevenness correction processing to correct density unevenness, using a preset unevenness correction value; acquiring a pre-conversion density measurement value that is a density measurement value of each density setting value for every recording element in the density unevenness measurement test image before processing after image formation using a recording head; converting the pre-conversion density measurement value into a post-conversion density measurement value corresponding to a density measurement value after the processing, using a density measurement value conversion value derived beforehand and indicating a conversion relationship of density measurement values before and after the processing for every density setting value and to which the set unevenness correction value is applied as the density setting value; and deriving a new unevenness correction value using the post-conversion density measurement value. | 12-04-2014 |
20150029253 | GENERATING DATA TO CONTROL THE EJECTION OF INK DROPS - According to one example of the present invention, there is provided a method of generating data to control the ejection of ink drops from a plurality of arrays of printhead nozzles of a printing system. In the printing system one of the arrays of nozzles is configured to eject a first ink of a first colour having a first colourant density. Another one of the arrays of nozzles is configured to eject a second ink of the first colour having a second colourant density. Each array of nozzles is capable of making ink marks having a plurality of different ink mark volumes on a media. The method comprises obtaining image data for a single colour channel and generating, from the image data, multi-level screen data describing, for each of the first and second inks, the ink mark volume to be made by the array of printhead nozzles at each screen location. | 01-29-2015 |
20150035889 | PRINTER AND PROGRAM - A printer includes a liquid ejection section and a drive control section. The liquid ejection section is configured to eject a plurality of types of liquids and form dots having different sizes. The drive control section is configured to control a dot size of the liquids to be ejected by the liquid ejection section based on image data. When an image including a three-dimensional image in which a plurality of linear images are arrayed is printed on a medium, the liquid ejection section is configured to eject the liquids, at least in an end section area in an array direction of the linear images in a print area of the image, under a setting in which an ejection ratio of relatively small dots is set lower than in an inner area that is positioned more inward than the end section area. | 02-05-2015 |
20150049137 | DOT DETECTION METHOD AND COLOR IMAGE REPRODUCTION APPARATUS - A method for detecting a dot of functional material on a medium at a predetermined location, the dot having a predetermined color, is based on lightness, chroma and hue components of colors present in an area of the predetermined location on a scanned image of the printed medium. A color image reproduction apparatus is disclosed for carrying out the method for detecting a dot of functional material. | 02-19-2015 |
20150091964 | Inkjet Printer - Upon determination that a paper to be printed is a first type of paper, a controller deletes pixels at least in one line from one side end of a pattern image forming a black information code in an information recording direction, and drives a printing unit to eject an ink of at least one color other than black in addition to an ink of black to pixels at least in one line at each of two side ends in the information recording direction of the pattern image with the pixels at least in the one line being deleted such that the pattern image is printed with a same width in the information recording direction as a width of the black information code included in an image data. | 04-02-2015 |
20150091965 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD AND IMAGE PRINTING APPARATUS - When an image is printed with inks each containing a polymer emulsion and a film forming agent, the ejection of the inks is controlled so that the ink having a relatively low dynamic surface tension forms dots having a higher dot connectivity than the dots formed with the ink having a relatively high dynamic surface tension. | 04-02-2015 |
20150103111 | PRINTING DEVICE AND PRINTING METHOD - Dots with metallic ink are formed in an arrangement in which an average of distances between dots with the metallic dots is shorter than an average of distances between dots with color ink. The “distance between dots with the color ink” indicates a distance from a color dot to be focused to one color dot at the closest position thereto. The same holds true for the metallic ink. | 04-16-2015 |
20150116407 | COLOR-TO-COLOR CORRECTION IN A PRINTING SYSTEM - A printing system for printing multiple copies of a print job having one or more documents is disclosed. A plurality of printheads prints each of a plurality of color planes of a first copy of the print job. One or more processors determine a first plurality of color registration errors produced during the printing of the first copy of the print job. Global color plane correction values for each document of the print job are determined. The global color plane correction values are adjusted locally for each document based on the first plurality of local color plane correction values. The plurality of printheads prints a second copy of the print job using the locally adjusted global color plane correction values for each document in the print job. | 04-30-2015 |
20150116408 | COLOR-TO-COLOR CORRECTION IN A PRINTING SYSTEM - A method for performing color-to-color correction for printing multiple copies of a print job having one or more documents is disclosed. A first copy of the print job is printed using a plurality of color planes. A first plurality of color registration errors produced during the printing of the first copy of the print job is determined. For each document in the print job, a processor is used to determine a first plurality of local color plane correction values for each color registration error produced during the printing of the first copy of the print job. Each of the first plurality of local color plane correction values corresponds to one of the first plurality of color registration errors. A second copy of the print job is printed using the local color plane correction values for each document in the print job. | 04-30-2015 |
20150116409 | COLOR-TO-COLOR CORRECTION IN A PRINTING SYSTEM - A printing system for printing multiple copies of a print job having one or more documents is disclosed. A plurality of printheads prints each of a plurality of color planes of a first copy of the print job. A processor is used to determine a first plurality of color registration errors produced during the printing of the first copy of the print job. A first plurality of local color plane correction values for each document of the print job is determined. Each of the first plurality of local color plane correction values corresponds to one of the first plurality of color registration errors. The plurality of printheads prints a second copy of the print job using the local color plane correction values for each document in the print job. | 04-30-2015 |
20150116410 | COLOR-TO-COLOR CORRECTION IN A PRINTING SYSTEM - Methods and systems for performing color-to-color correction for printing multiple print jobs comprise receiving a first print job, wherein the first print job has one or more documents, receiving a second print job, wherein at least a portion of one of the documents in the second print job is different from a corresponding document in the first print job, and printing a copy of the first print job. One or more processors are used to determine a plurality of color plane registration errors produced during the printing of the copy of the first print job, local color plane correction values based on the plurality of color registration errors, and a difference between the corresponding documents in the first print job and second print job. When the amount of difference is less than a predetermined threshold, the local color plane correction values are used to print the second print job. | 04-30-2015 |
20150145913 | INKJET IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An inkjet image forming apparatus includes ink heads, a drive voltage controller that adjusts density by controlling each drive voltage of the ink heads, a halftone processing controller that adjusts density by changing the number of ink droplets ejected from each nozzle of the ink heads, and a density adjustment controller that prints and scans a density adjustment pattern to calculate an adjustment value of each density level. The density adjustment controller adjusts density of a lowest density level so that the drive voltage controller controls each drive voltage based on the adjustment value of the lowest density level, and adjusts density of each density level other than the lowest density level so that the halftone processing controller changes the number of ink droplets based on the adjustment value of each density level other than the lowest density level and the adjustment result by the drive voltage controller. | 05-28-2015 |
20150321484 | IMAGE FORMATION DEVICE, METHOD AND PROGRAM - There are provided an image formation device, method, and program capable of forming an image, which is appropriate for a combination of dot sizes, with high flexibility in design for optimizing halftone processing in a case of using a plurality of dot sizes. Two or more combinations are selected among combinations of a plurality of types of threshold matrix and at least one type of division information for classifying a whole range of threshold values covered by the types of threshold matrix into a plurality of divisions. Then, by respectively applying the two or more combinations, dot sizes of pixels are determined on the basis of assigned two or more code values. | 11-12-2015 |
20150328901 | IMAGE FORMATION DEVICE, METHOD, PROGRAM, AND FORMED IMAGE - There are provided an image formation device, an image formation method, a program, and an image forming product capable of preventing noise and granularity of an image from deteriorating even when dots with a plurality of dot sizes are arranged to be aggregated. When a continuous tone image signal is a signal which indicates a tint image, at least one of dot aggregation portions | 11-19-2015 |
20150360494 | Method for Adapting Decor Prints and a Device for Conducting Said Metho - The present invention relates to a method for printing wood-based boards, in particular, wood-fiber boards, by means of a digital printing process. The method includes the steps of: a) measuring the color value of the wood-based board of at least one first batch and transmitting the color values to a computer program; b) measuring of the color values of the wood-based board of at least one further batch and transmitting the color values to the computer program; c) processing the color values of the wood-based board of the at least one further batch in the computer program and adapting the color value of the digital print; and d) printing at least one side of the wood-based board by means of digital printing technique by forming a décor layer such that no color deviations between the printed decors of the wood-based boards of the at least one first batch and each further batch occur. | 12-17-2015 |
20150375500 | LIQUID EJECTING APPARATUS, METHOD OF CONTROLLING LIQUID EJECTING APPARATUS, AND PROGRAM FOR CONTROLLING LIQUID EJECTING APPARATUS - A liquid ejecting apparatus including: a first nozzle group including first nozzles which eject a liquid with a first color absorbing light having a predetermined wavelength, a second nozzle group including second nozzles which eject a liquid with a second color absorbing light having a predetermined wavelength, and Q (Q is a natural number satisfying “2≦Q”) nozzle groups including nozzles which eject a liquid other than the liquid having the first color and the liquid having the second color; the first nozzle group is provided in a first area, the second nozzle group is provided in a second area, and the Q nozzle groups are not provided between the first area and the second area but provided on the upstream side or the downstream side of the first area and the second area. | 12-31-2015 |
20160001571 | IMAGE PRODUCING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PRODUCING METHOD - A control signal is generated, so that if dots, which are formed in a transverse direction across a recording medium, are classified into plural groups depending on a plurality of timings, then preceding dots, which belong to a group having an earliest timing, are formed in a pale color. A head drive circuit controls a recording head based on the generated control signal. | 01-07-2016 |
20160016402 | INK JET RECORDING SYSTEM - An ink jet recording system includes an ink jet recording device; and a control portion that controls the ink jet recording device, in which when a first mode is selected from a plurality of recording modes, the control portion performs control of recording a security image corresponding to an input image on a recording medium by performing control of forming a glitter image by a glitter ink composition in a first image area on the recording medium, forming a color image by a color ink composition in the glitter image, and forming the color image by the color ink composition on a second image area that is in contact with the first image area. | 01-21-2016 |
20160016413 | PRINTING APPARATUS - To correct a color shift caused by printing data, a printing apparatus includes an image formation section that prints on a transfer film using color inks according to printing data, and a control section which stores or generates pattern data of a pattern having respective colors of the inks, and combines the printing data and the pattern data so that a printing image of the pattern data overlaps a part of a printing image of the printing data. The control section corrects a printing start position on the transfer film with the image formation section of at least one color ink among printing images to print respectively with the color inks, according to input first information concerning a shift in respective colors of the inks constituting the pattern occurring in forming an image on the transfer film in the image formation section according to combined printing data subjected to combining. | 01-21-2016 |
20160016414 | METHOD OF CONTROLLING COLOR MIXING ON NOZZLE PLATE OF INKJET PRINTHEAD - An inkjet printer includes a stationary inkjet printhead positioned relative to a media feed direction. The printhead includes a plurality of color planes for ejecting a plurality of different inks, each color plane having a row of nozzles and each nozzle in a respective color plane being supplied with a same ink. A first ink tank containing yellow ink is in fluid communication with a first color plane of the printhead and a second ink tank containing black ink is in fluid communication with a second color plane of the printhead. The first color plane is positioned furthest upstream in the printhead with respect to the media feed direction, and the second color plane neighbors the first color plane. | 01-21-2016 |
20160023472 | COLOR CHART CREATING METHOD AND A COLOR CORRECTING METHOD - In printing image data for printing a color chart with a printing machine, instead of using a TAC value which is a total of CMYK values given to one pixel as a limit of ink amount supplied to a printing medium as done conventionally, creation of a color chart having a large color gamut is realized by considering and adjusting the amount of inks per unit area actually consumed at the time of printing and drying performance of each ink. | 01-28-2016 |
20160039217 | Color-Processing Device, Image-Forming Device And Color-Processing Method - A color-processing device includes a storage section which stores reference data including reference values set for respective representative color values selected within the range of a predetermined number of gradations of a predetermined color for each of representative output parts selected from a predetermined number of output parts, a first specifying section which specifies an output part corresponding to the input value, a second specifying section which specifies a representative output part corresponding to the specified output part, a third specifying section which specifies a representative color value corresponding to a color value indicated by the input value, an obtaining section which obtains reference values corresponding to combinations of the specified representative output part and representative color value, and a calculating section which calculates an output value corresponding to the input value by interpolation using the obtained reference values. | 02-11-2016 |
20160075146 | IMAGE FORMATION APPARATUS, METHOD FOR EXAMINING DISCHARGE OF TRANSPARENT DROPLETS, AND PROGRAM FOR EXAMINING DISCHARGE OF TRANSPARENT DROPLETS - An image formation apparatus includes a first discharge unit to form an image on a recording medium; and a second discharge unit including a nozzle line that discharges transparent droplets on the image formed on the recording medium. The second discharge unit moves in a first direction relative to the recording medium and the nozzle line has nozzles in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. After the image formation, the second discharge unit discharges the transparent droplets from the nozzles spaced at m−1 nozzle intervals to form a row of dots in the second direction, and repeats the forming while moving to form m rows in the first direction, such that the dots in the rows are formed at m−1 nozzle intervals and positions of the dots between n-th and n−1-th rows are displaced together by one nozzle in the second direction. | 03-17-2016 |
20160167376 | DITHER MASK GENERATION METHOD AND DEVICE | 06-16-2016 |
20160193850 | Printer Apparatus | 07-07-2016 |
20160198067 | PRINTING DEVICE FOR PROVIDING MULTIPLE DOCUMENTS OF ONE TYPE | 07-07-2016 |
20170232758 | INKJET PRINTER WITH DENSITY CORRECTION FUNCTION | 08-17-2017 |