Abstract: A recording apparatus includes a processing unit configured to convert acquired image information into dot data, and an image forming unit configured to form an image on a recording medium based on the image information converted into dot data by the processing unit, wherein the processing unit enlarges an image of the acquired image information to a size protruding into margins formed at both side ends of the recording medium, then converts the image information into dot data, and then, based on side end position information of the recording medium detected by the detection unit, processes the image information converted into dot data so that image formation is not performed on portions of the enlarged image protruding into the margins.

Abstract: To achieve high-quality printing by controlling an ink-travelling direction by an electrostatic force so that the ink can be accurately applied on a printing medium, the ink is landed on a desired position of the printing medium effectively without disturbing the ink ejection, independent of a difference in the thickness of the printing medium. An electric field between a printing head and the printing medium is generated by applying a voltage to a platen of conductive material positioned immediately below the printing medium. At this point, the voltage applied to the platen is adjusted so that the electric field of a preferable intensity can be generated on a face of the printing head where ejection openings are formed irrespective of the thickness of the printing medium.

Abstract: An object of this invention is to prevent prolongation of the time taken for a suction recovery operation while suppressing wasteful consumption of ink in the suction recovery operation. An ink-jet printing apparatus includes a plurality of caps which, when a plurality of nozzles of an ink-jet head are divided into a plurality of nozzle groups, are arranged one by one for the respective nozzle groups, and cap the respective nozzle groups, a suction pump which generates a negative pressure in the plurality of caps to suck ink from the plurality of nozzles, and is arranged commonly for the plurality of caps, and a control unit which controls the suction pump so as to make the negative pressure by the suction pump act on all the caps when a common negative pressure is generated in the plurality of caps, and make different negative pressures by the suction pump act sequentially on the plurality of caps when different negative pressures are generated in the respective caps.

Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a plurality of full-line type printheads. The printing apparatus holds information relating to overlap nozzles that overlap between a reference printhead and an adjustment printhead, generates discharge data for causing a tilt adjustment pattern to be printed by nozzles disposed in different positions in the overlap nozzles that overlap between the reference printhead and the adjustment printhead, and causes ink to be discharged from the nozzles in the overlap nozzles that overlap between the reference printhead and the adjustment printhead based on the discharge data. In this manner, the tilt adjustment pattern is printed on a printing medium.

Abstract: The invention provides a configuration capable of judging whether an ink jet head is exchanged or whether it is replaced, and changing an amount of recovery operation when the ink jet head is exchanged or replaced. Thus a recording apparatus capable of avoiding a defective ink supply in case the ink jet head is exchanged or replaced, and not wasting the ink by unnecessarily excessive recovery operation, can be provided.

Abstract: A plurality of ejection portions are divided into groups, each containing at least one ejection portion, so that the suction-based recovery operation can be performed for each group independently. Since the number of ejection portions contained in each group differs, if an ink flow resistance varies among the different groups, simultaneous suction-based recovery operations can be done by using a common suction pump, without having to sequentially perform the suction-based recovery operations under an optimum pump driving condition. For this purpose, inner diameters of a plurality of ink discharge tubes running from a plurality of cap units, which cap a plurality of print head units having different numbers of ejection portions, to the common pump are differentiated. This allows different flows to be produced in different ink discharge systems, thus generating desirable ink flows for individual ink supply systems.

Abstract: An apparatus and method of ink jet printing is provided that poor ejection less occurs even where making a printing on a printing medium ready to cause a paper powder, such as a fine art paper. An image is to be printed on a printing medium by performing a relative movement of a printing medium and a printing head having a plurality of arrays each having a plurality of ejection openings. On this occasion, the image is printed by using ejection openings in a number changed in accordance with a type of the printing medium, out of a plurality of ejection openings on the two arrays adjacent to each other.

Abstract: To achieve high-quality printing by controlling an ink-traveling direction by an electrostatic force so that the ink can be accurately applied on a printing medium, the ink ejected to areas outside edges of the printing medium is prevented from being attracted to the end portions in margin-less printing. This configuration includes: a platen, made of a conductive material, positioned immediately below the printing medium; an absorber positioned at a side of the edge; and a mesh conductive member disposed on the absorber. A first voltage is applied to the platen, causing polarization in the printing medium, and a second voltage higher than the first voltage is applied to the conductive member. Thereby, ink ejected outside the edges in the margin-less printing, travels straight-forwardly toward the conductive member without being attracted to the end portions, and is absorbed into the absorber via the conductive member.

Abstract: A voltage pulse that keeps the ejection volume within a specified range is selected for a plurality of print element columns, based on the heater rank and ink temperature information that influences the ejection volume during ink ejection. At this time, the voltage pulse is controlled so that the voltage value of the pulse is equal for a plurality of print element columns at any ink temperature and varies according to the ink temperature. This control process enables pulses of the same voltage value to be applied at all times to a plurality of nozzle columns even if these nozzle columns in the print head have different heater ranks. As a result, the ejection volumes of all nozzle columns can be kept within a specified range with high precision over a wide range of base temperature, without requiring complicated circuit configurations.

Abstract: Without newly providing a curling inhibition apparatus or a curling inhibitor and without placing excessive restrictions on a composition of an ink or a printing properties enhancing liquid, curling after printing is suppressed. In an ink jet printing apparatus which performs printing on a printing medium by ejecting from a printing head an ink and a reaction liquid which reacts with the ink, said apparatus comprising; means for on the basis of ink ejection data for ejecting the ink onto an one side of the printing medium, generating reaction liquid ejection data for ejecting the reaction liquid onto an other side of the printing medium.

Abstract: Mask patterns to be used for multi-pass printing make it possible to make a print with a higher quality at a higher speed. Specifically, by performing a swapping process with adjacency forbiddance, two points in the horizontal direction, or the scanning direction of a printing head, are selected in a buffer in which codes for each scan pass are set depending on printing ratios of a gradation mask. Subsequently, codes are swapped between the two points. By this swap, adjacencies between print permitting areas are eliminated in the mask pattern. As a result, when driving frequencies set for the printing head is kept constant, the scanning speed can be doubled at minimum.

Abstract: Each of four areas of 2×2 in one pixel has four sub areas and the four sub areas correspond to four nozzle arrays A to D. In the sub area of each area, information showing what nozzle array is used for a print of the area is defined. The sub area filled in black shows performing therein a print of a dot using nozzles in the nozzle array corresponding to the sub area. In this way, the dot arrangement pattern has information showing the nozzle array to which nozzles used for printing an area belong, for each area. Therefore, without executing the particular data allocation processing such as mask processing, the allocation of the dot data to the plurality of nozzle arrays can be carried out with a simple arrangement.

Abstract: A plurality of ejection portions are divided into groups, each containing at least one ejection portion, so that the suction-based recovery operation can be performed for each group independently. Since the number of ejection portions contained in each group differs, if an ink flow resistance varies among the different groups, simultaneous suction-based recovery operations can be done by using a common suction pump, without having to sequentially perform the suction-based recovery operations under an optimum pump driving condition. For this purpose, inner diameters of a plurality of ink discharge tubes running from a plurality of cap units, which cap a plurality of print head units having different numbers of ejection portions, to the common pump are differentiated. This allows different flows to be produced in different ink discharge systems, thus generating desirable ink flows for individual ink supply systems.

Abstract: Printing can be properly performed on a print medium other than print media preset in accordance with print modes of a printer. Specifically, when the print medium other than the print media preset in accordance with the print modes is used, patches are printed on the print medium in each combination of the ink ejection amount and the number of passes, and information regarding each evaluation of granularity and banding based on colorimetry of the patches is obtained for each combination of the ink ejection amount and the number of passes. Next, a combination of the maximum ink ejection amount and the maximum number of passes is selected from the combinations that each evaluation of the granularity and the banding satisfies a certain level. Then, a print mode having a combination nearest the combination is selected from the plurality of print modes.

Abstract: The present invention provides an ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method which are capable of stabilizing the amount of ink ejection and of printing a high-definition image by selecting a driving condition with heat conductivity of an electrothermal converter being taken into consideration. The heat conductivity from a heater to ink is classified into heater ranks, and, on the basis of the heater rank, a voltage of a drive pulse to be applied to the heater is changed.

Abstract: A plurality of ejection portions are divided into groups, each containing at least one ejection portion, so that the suction-based recovery operation can be performed for each group independently. Since the number of ejection portions contained in each group differs, if an ink flow resistance varies among the different groups, simultaneous suction-based recovery operations can be done by using a common suction pump, without having to sequentially perform the suction-based recovery operations under an optimum pump driving condition. For this purpose, inner diameters of a plurality of ink discharge tubes running from a plurality of cap units, which cap a plurality of print head units having different numbers of ejection portions, to the common pump are differentiated. This allows different flows to be produced in different ink discharge systems, thus generating desirable ink flows for individual ink supply systems.

Abstract: A voltage pulse that keeps the ejection volume within a specified range is selected for a plurality of print element columns, based on the heater rank and ink temperature information that influences the ejection volume during ink ejection. At this time, the voltage pulse is controlled so that the voltage value of the pulse is equal for a plurality of print element columns at any ink temperature and varies according to the ink temperature. This control process enables pulses of the same voltage value to be applied at all times to a plurality of nozzle columns even if these nozzle columns in the print head have different heater ranks. As a result, the ejection volumes of all nozzle columns can be kept within a specified range with high precision over a wide range of base temperature, without requiring complicated circuit configurations.

Abstract: A plurality of print modes having different drive voltage values are provided for each ink temperature and, in each print mode, the ejection volume control is performed by adjusting the drive pulse. In a high quality mode that gives priority to an image quality, a drive pulse of relatively low voltage and long pulse width is applied. In a high speed mode that gives priority to a print speed, a drive pulse of relatively high voltage and short pulse width is applied. In the high quality mode this control allows the ejection volume to be controlled in a wide temperature range, stabilizing the color reproduction. In the high speed mode this control allows the drive frequency of the print head to be raised, increasing the print speed.

Abstract: The present invention is intended to make it possible to form patches that allow for a high precision measurement of a threshold of an electric energy to be supplied to nozzles of a print head, without using a high-precision sensor. To this end, this invention changes the electric energy supplied to the nozzles of the print head stepwise in printing patches that are used to measure an ink droplet ejection state of the nozzles for each level of electric energy. The patch printing involves dividing the nozzle column of the print head into a plurality of nozzle groups and scanning at least one of the nozzle groups a plurality of times over each of the plurality of patch forming areas set on a print medium.

Abstract: A voltage pulse that keeps the ejection volume within a specified range is selected for a plurality of print element columns, based on the heater rank and ink temperature information that influences the ejection volume during ink ejection. At this time, the voltage pulse is controlled so that the voltage value of the pulse is equal for a plurality of print element columns at any ink temperature and varies according to the ink temperature. This control process enables pulses of the same voltage value to be applied at all times to a plurality of nozzle columns even if these nozzle columns in the print head have different heater ranks. As a result, the ejection volumes of all nozzle columns can be kept within a specified range with high precision over a wide range of base temperature, without requiring complicated circuit configurations.