Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus, in which a time required for printing is shortened. The printing apparatus includes a first printing unit that performs printing on a first surface of a sheet by an ink jet system; and a second printing unit that performs printing on a second surface of the sheet by the ink jet system, the second printing unit being disposed on a downstream side of the first printing unit. Moreover, the printing apparatus includes a sheet discharge sensor that detects the sheet to be discharged from the second printing unit. The sheet discharge sensor includes an arm having a rotating member supported thereon, the rotating member being brought into contact with the sheet being conveyed while being rotated.

Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a plurality of inkjet print heads to which humidified air is supplied to retain the humidity in the print heads. Ink colors for the plurality of heads are arranged in a sequence corresponding to ink characteristics. The plurality of print heads are arranged in a sequence such that a print head configured to eject ink characterized by having a larger amount of volatile components evaporated within a predetermined time is located in a more upstream area.

Abstract: A process of detecting a defective recording element and a process of correcting the defective recording element are performed with appropriate processing loads. When the detection process and the correction processes are performed with small loads, for example, at a time of recording, a resolution used for reading an inspection pattern is set lower than that set in a case where the processes can be performed with small loads, for example, at down time before recording. The reading resolution to be set may be determined by an apparatus in accordance with a processing load or may be arbitrarily determined by a user.

Abstract: A waiting time Ts is decided on the basis of ink type information and ink feed amount information, referring to waiting time table A (Step 6). Along with this, a dried printing paper is carried to and stopped in a waiting area 9 (Step 7), a time period T is measured after stopping, and measurement processing in the next step is delayed until the time period T reaches the waiting time Ts. Then, when the time period T reaches the waiting time Ts, a measuring instrument 10 is used to measure a density of a patch printed on the printing paper (Steps 8 and 9).

Abstract: An embodiment of this invention is directed to a printing apparatus capable of providing an output result without a printing density difference between two surfaces in two-sided printing. In the printing apparatus, one subtank is provided for each type of ink. The nozzles of printheads that receive inks supplied from the subtank and are used for printing of the front surface of a printing sheet and printing of the back surface, respectively, are aligned to almost the same level in the vertical direction, thereby making the water head pressures match.

Abstract: The present invention suppresses data processing load and processing time when generating density data for the same color that corresponds to a plurality of printing scans (or plurality of printing element groups) of a printing head and printing medium. In order to accomplish this, input image data is converted to a plurality of density data by referencing a three-dimensional lookup table that performs one-to-one correlation of input image data with a plurality of density data that corresponds to a plurality of relative movements (or plurality of printing element groups). By doing so, it is possible to perform a process of generating density data (CMYK) that corresponds to a plurality of relative movements (or plurality of printing element groups) from input image data at once, and thus it is possible to suppress an increase in data processing load and processing time.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A process of detecting a defective recording element and a process of correcting the defective recording element are performed with appropriate processing loads. When the detection process and the correction processes are performed with small loads, for example, at a time of recording, a resolution used for reading an inspection pattern is set lower than that set in a case where the processes can be performed with small loads, for example, at down time before recording. The reading resolution to be set may be determined by an apparatus in accordance with a processing load or may be arbitrarily determined by a user.

Abstract: First humidified gas is supplied from a first supply port to a sheet to be conveyed, thereby increasing the moisture content of the sheet. Simultaneously, second humidified gas is supplied to a space where nozzles of the inkjet recording head are exposed, from a second supply port provided at a position closer to the inkjet recording head than the first supply port, thereby increasing the atmosphere humidity of the space. The part of the sheet of which the moisture content has been increased is made to enter the space where the atmosphere humidity has been increased, and recording is performed by the inkjet recording head.

Abstract: A printing apparatus and a printing method are capable of not permitting a printable ratio of each printing scan to have a deviation and, even if a sudden conveyance shift occurs, outputting a uniform and smooth image in the whole area of the print medium. In order to achieve this, when performing multipass printing of 2M passes, a mask such that a printable area overlapping ratio that relates to straddling between Pass M and Pass M+1 is set higher than the printable area overlapping ratio that relates to straddling between two other consecutive passes is used. By this configuration, even if a complementary relationship of dots collapses due to a sudden conveyance shift or the like and thereby a density reduction is anticipated, by an overlapped dot being separated, increase of the density is accelerated, and it becomes possible to mitigate the above-mentioned density reduction.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: 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 overlapping portions of the recording heads for two different colors are separated from each other with a distance therebetween in an array direction of nozzles.

Abstract: When recording is performed in a pixel region by M (M is an integer equal to or larger than 2) passes with N (N is an integer equal to or larger than 2) recording element groups, density variation due to a deviation between recording positions of dots that are recorded by different passes is suppressed while a load of data processing is decreased. First, multivalued image data (24-1 to 24-2) corresponding to the M passes is generated from input image data, and the multivalued image data corresponding to the M passes is quantized to generate quantized data (26-1 to 26-2) corresponding to the M passes. Then, the quantized data corresponding to the M passes is divided into quantized data being complements of each other and corresponding to the N recording element groups. Accordingly, the quantized data (28-1 to 28-4) corresponding to the M passes for the N recording element groups is obtained.

Abstract: The image processing apparatus executes quantization processing of second multi-valued image data that corresponds to a second relative movement of a plurality of relative movements based on first multi-valued image data that corresponds to a first relative movement of the plurality of relative movements, and executes quantization processing of the first multi-valued image data based on the second multi-valued image data. This makes it possible to output a high-quality image having excellent robustness and reduced graininess by controlling the overlap rate of dots that are printed by the first relative movement and the dots that are printed by the second relative movement.

Abstract: An apparatus includes: a drying unit to dry a printing medium on which an image was printed using an inkjet head; a humidification unit to humidify the printing medium that was dried by the drying unit so that the moisture content of the printing medium becomes the equilibrium state in the ambient environment; a colorimetric unit to perform colorimetry on the printing medium that was humidified by the humidification unit; and a calibration unit to calibrate printing properties on the basis of the result of colorimetry by the colorimetric unit.

Abstract: Provided is an inkjet printing apparatus for performing a printing with a first nozzle array for ejecting a first color ink and a second nozzle array for ejecting a second color ink. The apparatus reduces density unevenness stemming from a sudden error in conveyance of a printing medium. When the apparatus performs a scan with respect to the printing medium for printing in which using ranges of nozzles in the first and second nozzle arrays are restricted to parts thereof, the restricted using ranges of the first and second nozzle arrays are shifted from each other. Thereby, the density unevenness stemming from the error in conveyance occur in positions which are different between the first and second colors, Thus, it possible to make the overall density unevenness less obvious by making gradients of variations in brightness and chroma of an image smaller.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus includes a recording head configured to discharge ink, a first ink tank configured to store ink to be supplied to the recording head, a circulation path configured to circulate ink between the first ink tank and the recording head, a measurement unit configured to measure an ink temperature in the circulation path, a second ink tank configured to replenish ink to the circulation path, and a control unit configured to control replenishment of ink from the second ink tank to the circulation path based on the ink temperature measured by the measurement unit.

Abstract: An ink jet printing apparatus is disclosed that can more appropriately clean the nozzle faces of line-type print heads. The apparatus includes: a print head having nozzle chips, each having nozzle arrays arrayed on a common chip mounting face of the print head; a first cleaning unit configured to wipe the chip mounting face including wiping nozzle faces of the nozzle chips; a second cleaning unit configured to suction the chip mounting face including suctioning nozzle faces; a moving mechanism configured to move the first and second cleaning units relative to the print head in a first cleaning direction and in a second cleaning direction opposite to the first cleaning direction; and a selection unit configured to select a cleaning unit to be used for cleaning in the first and second cleaning directions from the first and second cleaning units, respectively.

Abstract: 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.