Abstract: An image reading apparatus includes an original-sheet support table and reading an image on an original sheet supported by the original-sheet support table. The original-sheet support table includes: (a) an original-sheet support surface on which the original sheet is supported; (b) a contact surface which stands up from the original-sheet support surface and is contactable with one side of the original sheet supported by the original-sheet support surface; and (c) at least one guide mark which is provided in the contact surface. The original sheet is positioned on the original-sheet support surface in a state in which the one side of the original sheet is held in contact with the contact surface of the original-sheet support table and one end of the one side of the original sheet is aligned with the at least one guide mark.

Abstract: An ink for ink-jet recording, by use of which the ejection stability and the storage stability are improved while the occurrence of blurring is prevented, includes water, a water soluble organic solvent and a colored particle as a coloring agent. The volume average diameter of the colored particles is about 1 ?m to about 5 ?m, and the amount of particles having diameters equal to or greater than about 1.5 times the volume average diameter is about 5 vol % or less with respect to the total volume of the colored particles.

Abstract: An ink cartridge for being mounted on an ink-jet recording apparatus includes an ink storage chamber for storing ink for ink-jet recording. A resin material forming the ink storage chamber contains a crystal-nucleating agent, and the ink has conductivity ranging from about 3 mS/cm to about 10 mS/cm.

Abstract: A water base ink for ink-jet recording contains a self-dispersible coloring agent, a propylene glycol ether, and a surfactant represented by the following general formula (3): R1—O—(CH2CH2O)n—SO3M??(3) wherein R1 represents an alkyl group having a number of carbon atoms of 12 to 15, M represents Na or triethanolamine, and n represents an integer of 2 to 4, and wherein the propylene glycol ether is dipropylene glycol propyl ether. The ink satisfies three requirements of i) the satisfactory initial introduction performance of the ink into an ink flow passage of a stacked type printer head, ii) the prevention of the occurrence of feathering, and iii) the prevention of the insufficient spread of the ink.

Abstract: A water base ink for ink-jet recording is provided, which makes it possible to secure a high recording quality with a sharp image area edge by avoiding any blurring even when recording is performed on regular paper and which has satisfactory purge restoration performance. Therefore, no bubble remains in an ink flow passage, and no discharge failure is caused. Further, the discharge operation never becomes unstable. In the water base ink for ink-jet recording, the surface tension is not less than 40 mN/m, and the amount of dissolved oxygen is not more than 4 mg/L.

Abstract: A water base ink for ink-jet recording contains self-dispersible carbon black as a coloring agent. The total content of an organic acid having a number of carbon or carbons of 1 to 6 and a salt of the organic acid is not more than 400 ppm. The organic acid having a number of carbon or carbons of 1 to 6 includes monocarboxylic acid, dicarboxylic acid and oxy acid, and the salt of the organic acid includes salts of these acids. When the water base ink is used in an ink-jet recording apparatus, the discharge stability of the ink is improved.

Abstract: An image reading apparatus includes an original-sheet support table and reading an image on an original sheet supported by the original-sheet support table. The original-sheet support table includes: (a) an original-sheet support surface on which the original sheet is supported; (b) a contact surface which stands up from the original-sheet support surface and is contactable with one side of the original sheet supported by the original-sheet support surface; and (c) at least one guide mark which is provided in the contact surface. The original sheet is positioned on the original-sheet support surface in a state in which the one side of the original sheet is held in contact with the contact surface of the original-sheet support table and one end of the one side of the original sheet is aligned with the at least one guide mark.

Abstract: The ink-jet recording apparatus employing an elastic member in at least a part of an ink passage into which a water-based ink for ink-jet recording is filled is configured to satisfy the following inequality (1): (T1/T0)×100?about 200%??(1), wherein T1 is filtration time when a first ink is filtrated through a specific electroformed filter, the first ink being prepared by immersing an elastic member in a water-based ink for ink-jet recording under a prescribed condition, and T0 is filtration time when a second ink is filtrated through the electroformed filter having same specifications as the above-mentioned filter, the second ink under another condition.

Abstract: A moving picture encoding system includes an encoding control unit for setting a target quantiser step size used to encode each of different types of pictures included in a unit group to be encoded, and for performing a control operation to generate and furnish a quantiser step size to an encoding unit so that a ratio among the target quantiser step sizes set for the different types of pictures is a predetermined one.

Abstract: A water base ink for ink-jet recording contains self-dispersible carbon black as a coloring agent. The total content of an organic acid having a number of carbon or carbons of 1 to 6 and a salt of the organic acid is not more than 400 ppm. The organic acid having a number of carbon or carbons of 1 to 6 includes monocarboxylic acid, dicarboxylic acid and oxy acid, and the salt of the organic acid includes salts of these acids. When the water base ink is used in an ink-jet recording apparatus, the discharge stability of the ink is improved.

Abstract: A water base ink for ink-jet recording contains self-dispersible carbon black as a coloring agent. The total content of an organic acid having a number of carbon or carbons of 1 to 6 and a salt of the organic acid is not more than 400 ppm. The organic acid having a number of carbon or carbons of 1 to 6 includes monocarboxylic acid, dicarboxylic acid and oxy acid, and the salt of the organic acid includes salts of these acids. When the water base ink is used in an ink-jet recording apparatus, the discharge stability of the ink is improved.

Abstract: An ink set for ink-jet recording includes a pigment-based ink containing a negatively chargeable and self-dispersible pigment as a coloring agent and a dye-based ink containing an anionic dye as a coloring agent, and the ink set satisfies the following expression (1): Dci<1.1×Pci+0.0001??(1) wherein “Dci” represents an amount of counter ion (mol/g) of the anionic dye contained in the dye-based ink, and “Pci” represents an amount of counter ion (mol/g) of the self-dispersible pigment contained in the pigment-based ink. The pigment aggregation can be greatly suppressed, and the high quality printing can be stably performed when the ink set for ink-jet recording composed of the pigment-based ink and the dye-based ink is carried on an ink-jet printer provided with a conventional maintenance system that is simple and at low cost.

Abstract: A water base pigment ink for ink-jet recording contains a pigment, a propylene glycol derivative which has a saturation vapor pressure of 2 to 10 hPa and an octanol-water distribution coefficient log P of 0 to 1.35, and dipropylene glycol-n-propyl ether. The propylene glycol derivative is contained in the ink by 0.25 to 1.5% by weight, and the dipropylene glycol-n-propyl ether is contained in the ink by 0.5 to 1% by weight. The ink is excellent in the paper surface drying performance. Further, it is possible to avoid the occurrence of the feathering and the blank stripes in letters.

Abstract: An ink for ink-jet recording, by use of which the ejection stability and the storage stability are improved while the occurrence of blurring is prevented, includes water, a water soluble organic solvent and a colored particle as a coloring agent. The volume average diameter of the colored particles is about 1 ?m to about 5 ?m, and the amount of particles having diameters equal to or greater than about 1.5 times the volume average diameter is about 5 vol % or less with respect to the total volume of the colored particles.

Abstract: A water base ink set for ink-jet recording includes a black ink containing water, a black pigment and a water-soluble organic solvent and a color ink containing water, a dye, and a water-soluble organic solvent. The black pigment is a negatively-chargeable and self-dispersible pigment. The dye has a fluorescein structure. The color ink further contains an alkylamine ethylene oxide adduct. The water-soluble organic solvent contained in the black ink is same as that contained in the color ink. With the ink set, not only the bleeding hardly occurs but also satisfactory discharge stability is obtained even when an ink-jet recording is performed on a regular paper.

Abstract: An ink set for ink-jet recording comprises a pigment ink and a dye ink containing a pigment and a dye as coloring agent, respectively. The pigment ink contains water, a water-soluble organic solvent, and a negatively charged pigment wherein potassium ion and sodium ion have a total ion concentration of not more than 200 ppm, and divalent or multivalent metal ion or ions have a total ion concentration of not more than 10 ppm. The dye ink contains water, a water-soluble organic solvent, and a dye associated with a counter ion of lithium ion wherein potassium ion and sodium ion have a total ion concentration of not more than 400 ppm, and divalent or multivalent metal ion or ions have a total ion concentration of not more than 10 ppm. In the ink set, the pigment and dye inks can be used in combination without complicating a maintenance system.

Abstract: Described are methods and systems for variable length decoding. A first execution unit executes a first single instruction that optionally reverses the order of bits in an encoded bitstream. A second execution unit executes a second single instruction that extracts a specified number of bits from the bitstream produced by the first execution unit. A third execution unit executes a third single instruction that identifies a number of consecutive zero bit values at the head of the bitstream produced by the first execution unit. The outputs of the first, second and third execution units are used in a process that decodes the encoded bitstream.

Abstract: In a water base ink set for ink-jet recording, a pigment ink has a total ion concentration of lithium ion, potassium ion, and sodium ion of not less than 60 ppm and a total ion concentration of divalent or multivalent metal ion or ions of not more than 10 ppm, and a dye ink has a total ion concentration of lithium ion, potassium ion, and sodium ion of not more than 1,800 ppm and a total ion concentration of divalent or multivalent metal ion or ions of not more than 10 ppm, wherein the total ion concentration of lithium ion, potassium ion, and sodium ion of the dye ink is 3 to 25 times that of the pigment ink. Accordingly, the water base ink set in which the pigment ink and the dye ink can be reliably used in combination without complicating a maintenance system is provided.

Abstract: An ink cartridge for being mounted on an ink-jet recording apparatus includes an ink storage chamber for storing ink for ink-jet recording. A resin material forming the ink storage chamber contains a crystal-nucleating agent, and the ink has conductivity ranging from about 3 mS/cm to about 10 mS/cm.

Abstract: A water base ink for ink-jet recording is provided, which is excellent in time-dependent stability of ink characteristics, which can be stably jetted over a long period of time, and which makes it possible to perform the high quality recording. The water base ink for ink-jet recording contains a self-dispersing type water-insoluble particulate coloring agent, a compound represented by the following formula (1), a surfactant having a nitrogen atom in a molecule, water, and a water-soluble organic solvent, wherein a surface tension is 30 to 50 mN/m, and a ratio of change of the surface tension after storage at 60° C. for 2 weeks is less than 5%: R1—O—(CH2CH2O)x—SO3Na??(1) wherein R1 represents an alkyl group and x is 20 to 30 in the formula (1).