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 is configured to perform recording with at least three types of inks that are similar in color and different in pigment density. The apparatus is capable of operating in a first mode for performing recording on a first recording medium using at least one of a second ink having a pigment density that is lower than that of a first ink and a third ink having a pigment density that is lower than that of the second ink, and in a second mode for performing recording on a second recording medium, which has a lower glossiness than the first recording medium, using at least the first ink.

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: An inkjet printing apparatus and a method for calculating an ink consumption that can reduce a difference between an ink consumption recognized by the printing apparatus and a consumption of ink actually consumed are provided. For this, at the time of calculation of an ink consumption by the printing apparatus, a suction amount rank indicating the quantity of a suction amount due to an individual difference in the apparatus is used to correct the suction amount, whereby the difference between an ink consumption recognized by the printing apparatus and a consumption of ink actually consumed is reduce.

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: An ink jet recording apparatus is structured to perform discharges in the capping status when preliminary discharges are performed in a shot number larger than a predetermined number, and perform discharges in a cap or a preparatory port other than the cap when the preliminary discharges are performed in a shot number less than the predetermined number. With the structure thus arranged, it is made possible to implement the suppression of the mist generation due to the preliminary discharges, and to make the time of recording on a recording medium shorter as well.

Abstract: In a printing apparatus which prints an image on a printing medium by alternately performing printing of an image on the printing medium by using a printing unit and conveyance of the printing medium relative to the printing unit, the conveyance amount in conveyance is corrected by using first and second parameters for correcting the conveyance amount in accordance with different factors. This makes it possible to correct the conveyance amount in accordance with the deviation of the printing position due to the different factors.

Abstract: A contamination of a printing medium caused by ink mist or the like is suppressed, which may scatter or float in an apparatus when margin-less printing is carried out in an ink jet printer. When margin-less printing for an edge of a printing medium P is performed, a predetermined edge area {circle around (1)} is printed using a smaller number of ejection openings during one scanning operation than that used for other areas {circle around (2)} and {circle around (3)}, while taking transportation errors relating to this end into consideration. This reduces the amount of ink mist resulting from ink ejected out of the edge of the printing medium during one scanning operation.

Abstract: For a recording apparatus capable of supplying a plurality of different color inks to a plurality of recording element substrates, when a condition for performing maintenance on a first recording element substrate is met, it is determined whether or not to perform maintenance on a second recording element substrate according to how close the second recording element substrate is to meeting the condition. Since maintenance is performed on the first and second recording element substrates in such a manner, unnecessary maintenance operations will be prevented from being carried out multiple times within a short period of time. Accordingly, the total amount of time required for maintenance is reduced.

Abstract: An optical pickup according to the present invention includes: a light source 1d for irradiating an optical disk 4 with light; a lens 3 for converging the light onto the optical disk 4; a photodetector 1c having a plurality of detection regions 1cf, 1ct for detecting light which is reflected from a signal surface of the optical disk 4 and converting the light into an electrical signal; a hologram element 1a having a hologram region 1b for guiding the reflected light to the photodetector 1c; and a light-shielding plate 2 for blocking at least a portion of light transmitted through a region of the hologram element 1a other than the hologram region 1b. The light-shielding plate 2 includes a light shielding portion 2b for blocking light, and an aperture 2a for allowing the light to be transmitted therethrough.

Abstract: For a horizontally arranged print head, in which nozzle rows are arranged parallel with a scanning direction of the print head, two of a plurality of ink colors used, which have the greatest hue difference, are selected. Between the nozzle rows for these two colors, at least two nozzle rows for other colors are arranged so that the nozzle rows for the two colors have a large inter-nozzle-row distance. The resulting print head is used for printing. If cyan, light cyan, magenta, light magenta, yellow, and black are used as ink colors, the light cyan, black, yellow, and light magenta inks are arranged between the cyan and magenta inks, having a great hue difference.

Abstract: An image forming system includes an electronic device and image forming device. The electronic device has a recording unit for recording a target image together with a recording condition of the target image and an output unit for outputting an image and a recording condition recorded by the recording unit. The image forming device has a requesting unit for requesting the electronic device to output an image to be formed and an image forming unit for applying an image processing to an image output by the output unit responsive to a request by the requesting unit. The requesting unit controls a quality of an image that the image forming device requests the electronic device to output in conformity with the recording condition and an image forming condition.

Abstract: In an ink-jet printing apparatus which includes a plurality of printing heads, each having an array of ink discharging elements, preliminary discharge of driving the elements of at least one printing head is performed a predetermined number of times. The printing head for which the preliminary discharge is to be performed is switched in a predetermined cycle. In performing the preliminary discharge, switching of the printing head is so controlled as to perform preliminary discharge a desired number of times for all the elements of the printing heads by repeating the cycle.

Abstract: Replacement of a recording head on a recording apparatus is detected on the basis of a serial number allocated to each recording head. The recording head also carries head characteristic information such as color information, shading information and so forth. When the recording head is replaced with a new one, the head characteristic information of the newly mounted recording head is automatically stored, so that head driving conditions are automatically determined to optimize the recording conditions without requiring any manual adjustment. Recovery operation is automatically executed when replacement of the recording head is detected, so that required recording conditions are recovered without manual instructions.

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: When recording a gradation pixel by performing pseudo-halftone processing, the occurrence of unevenness in the density in the recorded image is suppressed. For that purpose, when recording a pseudo-halftone image using dot patterns, a dot-pattern table storing a plurality of different dot patterns is provided for each gradation value. One dot-pattern table is selected from N dot-pattern tables based on gradation-value information for each pixel. One dot pattern is selected from the selected dot-pattern table, based on position information indicated by the pixel, and recording is performed using the selected dot pattern. It is thereby possible to prevent the concentrated use of a particular nozzle of a recording head, and suppress the occurrence of unevenness in the density due to characteristics of the specific nozzle.

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: 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.