Abstract: 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.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit, a determination unit, and a thinning unit. The acquisition unit may acquire color information concerning color of an image having an attribute of at least one of character or line drawing. The determination unit may determine a thinning ratio for thinning data of non-edge portions of the image according to the color information acquired by the acquisition unit. The thinning unit may thin data of the non-edge portions according to the thinning ratio determined by the determination unit. The thinning ratio determined by the determination unit when the color information indicates a color other than black is lower than the thinning ratio determined when the color information indicates black.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: If a non-edge part of an image is thinned at a constant thinning ratio regardless of an image size (a character size or a line image width), a reduction in image density in the non-edge part becomes more conspicuous with increasing image size, which can lead to a reduction in image quality. In view of the above, the thinning ratio at which to thin data in the non-edge part of the image is determined depending on the image size. The thinning ratio is set to be smaller for images with sizes greater than or equal to a predetermined value than for images with sizes smaller than the predetermined value such that a high-quality image with sufficiently high density in its non-edge part is obtained regardless of the image size.

Abstract: A semiconductor device includes: a substrate; a semiconductor element installed on the substrate so that a surface formed with an electrode is directed to the substrate; a chip capacitor installed on the substrate; and a conductive material covering a rear surface opposite to the surface of the semiconductor element and joining to one terminal electrode of the chip capacitor.

Abstract: Graininess is suppressed while at the same time minimizing grayscale variations caused by inter-plane deviations. For this purpose, when a pixel is printed by M relative scans of a print head over a print medium or by a relative scans of M print heads over the print medium, M pieces of multivalued image data is created according to a division number or distribution ratio determined by a grayscale value of that pixel. The M pieces of multivalued image data are individually quantized and then the printing is performed according to the quantized pixel data. This process prevents dot generation delays and graininess from deteriorating in highlighted areas, thus realizing printed images highly robust against density variations.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus is configured to process multivalued image data corresponding to a unit area of a recording medium so as to form an image on the unit area with a plurality of relative movements between a recording head and the recording medium. The apparatus has a selecting unit for selecting either a first processing mode to segment the multivalued image data into a plurality of multivalued image data corresponding to the plurality of relative movements, and then quantize each of the plurality of multivalued image data, or a second processing mode to quantize the multivalued image data into quantized image data, and then segment the quantized image data into a plurality of quantized image data corresponding to the plurality of relative movements. The selecting unit may select either the first processing mode or the second processing mode based on the number of relative movements to the unit area.

Abstract: A fixing device includes a fixing member that has a conductive layer capable of being heated by electromagnetic induction and fixes an image to the recording material; a magnetic-field generator that generates an alternating magnetic field intersecting with the conductive layer of the fixing member; a heating member that is at least partly separated from the fixing member and is heated; and a deformable member that is deformed when receiving heat and moves the heating member toward the fixing member.

Abstract: A recording medium peeling device includes: a circularly moving section that has a moving surface circulating along a circulation course; and a pressing section that presses a recording medium passing through a pressing position in the circulation course, against the moving surface at the pressing position. The recording medium peeling device further includes: a peeling member that is disposed downstream from the pressing position in the circularly moving, is apart from the moving surface, is provided along the moving surface, extends in a direction crossing a direction of the circularly moving, and peels the recording medium after passing through the pressing position from the moving surface; and a protruding member that is disposed downstream from the peeling member in a direction in which the recording medium after being peeled by the peeling member proceeds, protrudes from the peeling member side to the recording medium side, and slopes downstream.

Abstract: A channel selection section selects whether the subsequent processing to the image data is executed by image distribution precedence processing or by gradation lowering precedence processing in accordance with channel information of the image data. That is, in regard to the channels of C, M and K with relatively high density among inks, the image distribution precedence processing excellent in robustness is selected. On the other hand, in the ink of the color with high brightness or low density, even if the print position of the dot is shifted, the density change due to this shift is not so much large. It is possible to restrict an increase in the processing load due to executing the gradation lowering processing after the distribution processing to each of the plural divided images by thus not selecting the image distribution precedence processing in consideration of the robustness.

Abstract: Multi-valued image data stored in an input image buffer are read out for each time of scans, and the color space conversion and image distribution are performed to read multi-valued image data. The binarized result is sent to the print buffer and at the same time, is accumulated as the print information to execute processing of reflecting it to the image distribution processing of the next pass. It is possible to appropriately restrict the density fluctuation due to the print position shift between planes without providing pixels where dots are overlapped and printed more than necessary. With this, by accumulating the multi-valued image data at the stage of RGB in the input image buffer to read out data stored in input image buffer for executing processing, a capacity required for input image buffer does not change even if the number of the ink colors provided on the printing apparatus increases.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus for effecting recording using a recording head for ejecting ink, the ink jet recording apparatus including a heating section for heating the recording head, a detecting unit for detecting a temperature of the recording head, a setting unit for setting a target temperature of the recording head, and a controller for controlling the target temperature of the recording head at or above the target temperature. The controller controls the temperature by heating control for heating the recording head and by diffusing control for diffusing the heat supplied by the heating control.

Abstract: When recording with the use of a multi-pass recording method, the order in which a specific ink and the other inks are applied in layers is controlled while preventing the multiple recording scans (passes) from becoming unnecessary uneven in terms of the ink recording permission ratio, and also, the ratio with which the specific ink is permitted to be applied to each unit pixel is determined for each recording scan (pass), based on the information (for example, CMYK information, RGB information, etc.) regarding the specific ink and the other inks, which are to be applied to each unit pixel. Therefore, it is possible to change the recording scan(s), to which the application of the specific ink is concentrated, based on the application conditions for the specific ink and the other inks, and therefore, it is possible to change the ratio with which the specific ink is applied before or after the other inks are applied.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus processes, for each pixel, multivalued image data for a unit area of a recording medium, so as to form an image on the unit area with a plurality of relative movements between a recording head and the recording medium. The apparatus has a selector that selects a first processing mode for dividing the multivalued image data into a plurality of pieces of multivalued image data corresponding to the plurality of relative movements, and then quantizing each of the plurality of pieces of multivalued image data, or a second processing mode for quantizing the multivalued image data into quantized image data, and then dividing the quantized image data into a plurality of pieces of quantized image data corresponding to the plurality of relative movements. The selector selects the processing mode based on a content (attribute, grayscale, color, etc.) of the multivalued image data.

Abstract: A fixing device includes a fixing member that has a conductive layer capable of being heated by electromagnetic induction and fixes an image to the recording material; a magnetic-field generator that generates an alternating magnetic field intersecting with the conductive layer of the fixing member; a heating member that is at least partly separated from the fixing member and is heated; and a deformable member that is deformed when receiving heat and moves the heating member toward the fixing member.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A recording apparatus including a recording head that includes an element array of a plurality of recording elements for discharging a liquid, the plurality of recording elements in the element array being divided into groups, and a drive unit configured to drive the recording head in a driving mode selected from a plurality of driving modes including a continuous driving mode in which recording elements in each of the groups are driven in order from one end and a distributed driving mode in which recording elements in each of the groups are driven such that adjacent recording elements are not driven sequentially.

Abstract: A semiconductor device includes: a substrate; a semiconductor element installed on the substrate so that a surface formed with an electrode is directed to the substrate; a chip capacitor installed on the substrate; and a conductive material covering a rear surface opposite to the surface of the semiconductor element and joining to one terminal electrode of the chip capacitor.

Abstract: In a multipass printing that performs a plurality of printing scans over a unit area of a print medium by using a leading head and a follower head, the multivalued image data for the leading head is distributed according to the print volume information for up to the preceding printing scan. Then, the multivalued image data for the leading head is subjected to the grayscale level reduction operation to generate binary data. Based on the binary data, the print volume information is updated, after which the multivalued image data for the follower head is distributed according to the print volume information. This causes a plurality of printing scans or a plurality of print heads, that print the same unit area, to have a correlation among them, with the result that dots on a plurality of planes when overlapped have an excellent scattering characteristic.