Abstract: According to the present invention, a light source and one pixel unit formed of at least one light reception element among a light reception element array (photodiode array) are provided in a one-to-one correspondence, and a light beam is detected from at least one light reception element (one pixel unit) corresponding to the light source, only when the light source emits light. Therefore, only one collimated or further substantially condensed light beam is incident into “a foreign substance/defect” in an object to be inspected, and only scattered light can be separated by the light reception element and be detected. Accordingly, even when an object to be inspected has a light scattering property and is thick, “a foreign substance/defect” can be detected with a good signal to noise ratio (crosstalk is extremely low).

Abstract: One pixel unit including at least one light receiving element of a light receiving element array (photodiode array) and a light source have a one-to-one correspondence, and only when the light source emits light, the light beam is detected by at least one light receiving element (one pixel unit) corresponding to the light source. An illumination optical system includes a light guiding means for guiding to an inspection object by reducing an interval between optical axes of light beams emitted from a plurality of light sources in an arrangement direction of a plurality of the light sources.

Abstract: An optical line sensor reads an inspection object conveyed in a sub-scanning direction by a reading line L extending in a main scanning direction and includes a plurality of light-receiving lenses 11 and a plurality of light-receiving elements. The plurality of light-receiving lenses 11 are arranged along the main scanning direction. The plurality of light-receiving elements are arranged linearly along the main scanning direction, and receive light transmitted through the plurality of light-receiving, lenses 11. The plurality of light-receiving lenses 11 are arranged to be separated from each other by a diameter of the light-receiving lens 11 or longer. A plurality of light-receiving elements 121 form at least one row or more of the reading lines L.

Abstract: One pixel unit including at least one light receiving element of a light receiving element array (photodiode array) and a light source have a one-to-one correspondence, and only when the light source emits light, the light beam is detected by at least one light receiving element (one pixel unit) corresponding to the light source. An illumination optical system includes a light guiding means for guiding to an inspection object by reducing an interval between optical axes of light beams emitted from a plurality of light sources in an arrangement direction of a plurality of the light sources.

Abstract: According to the present invention, a light source and one pixel unit formed of at least one light reception element among a light reception element array (photodiode array) are provided in a one-to-one correspondence, and a light beam is detected from at least one light reception element (one pixel unit) corresponding to the light source, only when the light source emits light. Therefore, only one collimated or further substantially condensed light beam is incident into “a foreign substance/defect” in an object to be inspected, and only scattered light can be separated by the light reception element and be detected. Accordingly, even when an object to be inspected has a light scattering property and is thick, “a foreign substance/defect” can be detected with a good signal to noise ratio (crosstalk is extremely low).

Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a conveyance unit configured to convey a print medium, a printhead for printing an image by discharging ink to the conveyed print medium, a heating unit provided on a downstream side of the printhead with respect to a conveyance direction of the print medium and configured to heat the print medium, and a ventilation unit provided on a downstream side of the heating unit with respect to the conveyance direction and configured to ventilate air in a peripheral space of a conveyance path of the print medium. The printing apparatus controls to delay a start of printing by the printhead so that the print medium dried by the heating unit passes through the conveyance path in a state in which a humidity in the space becomes lower than a predetermined value due to the ventilation.

Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a conveyance unit configured to convey a print medium, a printhead for printing an image by discharging ink to the conveyed print medium, a heating unit provided on a downstream side of the printhead with respect to a conveyance direction of the print medium and configured to heat the print medium, and a ventilation unit provided on a downstream side of the heating unit with respect to the conveyance direction and configured to ventilate air in a peripheral space of a conveyance path of the print medium. The printing apparatus controls to delay a start of printing by the printhead so that the print medium dried by the heating unit passes through the conveyance path in a state in which a humidity in the space becomes lower than a predetermined value due to the ventilation.

Abstract: There is provided an inkjet printing apparatus that can execute a recovery process appropriate for a print head according to a use condition of the inkjet printing apparatus. Therefore a recovery operation is performed based upon both an elapsed time in a non-use state where the printing is not performed and an elapsed time from the previous recovery process.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image by consecutively superposing toner images that have been formed on a plurality of photosensitive drums, on an intermediate transfer member or a transfer medium. The image forming apparatus is made compact and operates at a low cost. Since a current supply member supplies a current in a rotational direction of an intermediate transfer belt, multiple first transfer portions do not need corresponding voltage sources. Even in the case where a charging member supplies a current, the potential of the intermediate transfer belt is maintained at a predetermined potential by a constant-voltage element connected to support rollers.

Abstract: A large-sized thin light guide plate has a first layer on a light exit surface side and a second layer on a rear surface side containing scattering particles at a higher particle concentration than the first layer. Thicknesses of the layers in a direction substantially perpendicular to the light exit surface change to change a combined particle concentration. The scattering particles, obtained by mixing a particle group with an average particle size Ds of less than 7 ?m having one or more local maximum values and a particle group with an average particle size Db of more than 7 ?m having one or more local maximum values, satisfy 1 ?m?Ds<7 ?m, 7 ?m<Db?12 ?m and 0.3?a?0.5. High light use efficiency, reduction of luminance and color unevenness, a convex brightness distribution and easy manufacture can be achieved.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image by consecutively superposing toner images that have been formed on a plurality of photosensitive drums, on an intermediate transfer member or a transfer medium. The image forming apparatus is made compact and operates at a low cost. Since a current supply member supplies a current in a rotational direction of an intermediate transfer belt, multiple first transfer portions do not need corresponding voltage sources. Even in the case where a charging member supplies a current, the potential of the intermediate transfer belt is maintained at a predetermined potential by a constant-voltage element connected to support rollers.

Abstract: There is provided an inkjet printing apparatus that can execute a recovery process appropriate for a print head according to a use condition of the inkjet printing apparatus. Therefore a recovery operation is performed based upon both an elapsed time in a non-use state where the printing is not performed and an elapsed time from the previous recovery process.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image by consecutively superposing toner images that have been formed on a plurality of photosensitive drums, on an intermediate transfer member or a transfer medium. The image forming apparatus is made compact and operates at a low cost. Since a current supply member supplies a current in a rotational direction of an intermediate transfer belt, multiple first transfer portions do not need corresponding voltage sources. Even in the case where a charging member supplies a current, the potential of the intermediate transfer belt is maintained at a predetermined potential by a constant-voltage element connected to support rollers.

Abstract: A printing apparatus, comprising a driving unit for driving a printhead including a plurality of nozzles each of which prints a dot, a conveying unit for conveying a printing medium, a memory and a unit, wherein the plurality of nozzles are arranged to form nozzle arrays adjacent to each other, the unit performs a first operation for developing printing data column by column on the memory, a second operation for assigning the printing data to each nozzle array, and a third operation for controlling the driving unit based on the assigned printing data, and, after the first operation and before the second operation, the unit specifies a portion of the printing data corresponding to a dot deviated from a correct printing region due to a tilt of the nozzle arrays and rearranges the portion.

Abstract: There is provided a planar lighting device which can emit light with high light use efficiency and small luminance unevenness. This object is achieved by having a light guide plate including two or more layers overlapping in a direction perpendicular to a light exit surface and having different particle concentrations of the scattering particles, thicknesses of the layers in the direction perpendicular to the light exit surface varying so that a combined particle concentration has, in a direction perpendicular to a light incidence surface, a first local maximum value closer to the light incidence surface and a second local maximum value located farther from the light incidence surface than the first local maximum value and being larger than the first local maximum value; and a micro-lens film having a plurality of spherical micro-ball lenses formed on a film.

Abstract: A printing apparatus including a print head including nozzle groups each having nozzles, each of the nozzle groups applying ink having a plurality of volumes from the nozzles to form dots including dots differing in size, including: an arrangement determination unit to determine an arrangement of dots to be formed by each of the nozzle groups; a size determination unit to determine sizes of ink ejected to print the dots determined by the arrangement determination unit, according to respective ejection characteristics of the nozzle groups, such that a print characteristic of an image based on the dot arrangement determined by the arrangement determination unit is within a predetermined range; and an ejection control unit to control the print head to eject ink having the plurality of sizes determined by the size determination unit in positions of a print medium based on the arrangement determined by the arrangement determination unit.

Abstract: The light guide plate has a first light incidence surface and a second light incidence surface which are provided on end sides of a light exit surface and are orthogonal to each other. The light guide plate includes two or more layers superposed on each other in a direction substantially perpendicular to the light exit surface and containing scattering particles at different particle concentrations. The thicknesses of the two or more layers in the direction substantially perpendicular to the light exit surface change so that a combined particle concentration of the light guide plate has, in directions perpendicular to the light incidence surfaces, a first local maximum value located on sides closer to the light incidence surfaces and a second local maximum value located at positions farther from the light incidence surfaces than positions of the first local maximum value and being larger than the first local maximum value.

Abstract: A printing apparatus, comprising a driving unit for driving a printhead including a plurality of nozzles each of which prints a dot, a conveying unit for conveying a printing medium, a memory and a unit, wherein the plurality of nozzles are arranged to form nozzle arrays adjacent to each other, the unit performs a first operation for developing printing data column by column on the memory, a second operation for assigning the printing data to each nozzle array, and a third operation for controlling the driving unit based on the assigned printing data, and, after the first operation and before the second operation, the unit specifies a portion of the printing data corresponding to a dot deviated from a correct printing region due to a tilt of the nozzle arrays and rearranges the portion.

Abstract: Adequate correction processing is performed on image data based on the degree of ink concentration that occurs even. An image processing apparatus having: acquisition unit for acquiring multi-value image data and a first parameter related to the degree of concentration of ink; first generation unit for generating corrected data by correcting the multi-value data that is to be printed for the first pixel based on the multi-value data that is to printed in the first pixel and a first parameter; and second generation unit for generating the first parameter and a second parameter that indicates the degree of ink concentration of the plurality of nozzles when printing a second pixel that is printed by the nozzles next to the first pixel.

Abstract: Provided are an inkjet printing apparatus and inkjet printing method that can, regardless of an ejection frequency of a print head, stabilize density of an image expressed on a print medium. For this purpose, an ink concentration integrated value is obtained according to the ejection history of each nozzle so as to be increased by data indicating non-ejection of the nozzle or decreased by data indicating ejection. Then, image data on the target pixel is corrected such that density of the target pixel is further reduced as the pixel is subjected to printing by a nozzle having a higher ink concentration integrated value.