Printing device, printing program, printing method and image processing device, image processing program, image processing method, and recording medium on which program is recorded - Patents

Printing device, printing program, printing method and image processing device, image processing program, image processing method, and recording medium on which program is recorded

Patent Agent: Harness, Dickey & Pierce, P.L.C - Bloomfield Hills, MI, US
Patent Inventors: Naoki KAYAHARA, Hiroaki SAKAI, Shinichi ARAZAKI, Toru TAKAHASHI
Applicaton #: 20070046706
Class: 347014000 (USPTO)
03/01/07
A printing device includes a printing head having nozzles for printing different size dots, a unit storing information representing a printing state of two nozzles printing two adjacent lines, a unit acquiring M value image data (M?3), a unit correcting a pixel value of at least one pixel corresponding to two nozzles directly corresponding to a banding phenomenon caused in the M value image data (M?3) and neighboring pixels based on the printing state information, a unit creating N-value conversion data by converting the pixel value corrected image data into an N value (M>N?2), a unit creating printing data to which dots having sizes corresponding to the pixels are allocated based on the N-value conversion data, and a unit printing by the printing head based on the printing data.

SUMMARY
[0024] An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a novel printing device capable of resolving or reducing a banding phenomenon, a printing program, a printing method, an image processing device, an image processing program, an image processing method, and a recording medium on which the program is recorded.
[0025] First Aspect
[0026] According to a first aspect of the invention, a printing device includes a printing head that has a plurality of nozzles capable of printing dots with different sizes, a printing state information storage unit that stores printing state information representing a printing state of two nozzles that print two adjacent lines, an image data acquiring unit that acquires M value image data (M.gtoreq.3), a pixel value correcting unit that corrects a pixel value of at least one pixel corresponding to the two nozzles that directly correspond to the banding phenomenon caused in the M value image data (M.gtoreq.3) acquired by the image data acquiring unit and neighboring pixels, based on the printing state information, an N-value conversion data creating unit that creates N-value conversion data by converting the image data having the pixel value corrected by the pixel value correcting unit into an N value (M>N.gtoreq.2), printing data creating unit that creates printing data to which dots having sizes corresponding to the pixels are allocated based on the N-value conversion data created by N-value conversion data creating unit, and a printing unit that performs printing by the printing head based on the printing data created by the printing data creating unit.
[0027] According to this aspect, the printing state information storage unit can store printing state information that represents a printing state of two nozzles printing two adjacent lines among a plurality of nozzles, the image data acquiring unit can acquire M value image data (M.gtoreq.3), and the pixel value correcting unit can correct a pixel value of at least one pixel corresponding to the two nozzles that directly correspond to the banding phenomenon caused in the M value image data (M.gtoreq.3) acquired by the image data acquiring unit and neighboring pixels, based on the printing state information. The N-value conversion data creating unit can create N-value conversion data by converting the image data having the pixel value corrected by the pixel value correcting unit into an N value (M>N.gtoreq.2), the printing data creating unit can create printing data to which dots having sizes corresponding to the pixels are allocated based on the N-value conversion data created by N-value conversion data creating unit, and the printing unit can perform printing by the printing head based on the printing data created by the printing data creating unit.
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