Ink jet printing apparatus and ink jet printing method

Ink jet printing apparatus and ink jet printing method

Patent Agent: Fitzpatrick Cella Harper & Scinto - New York, NY, US
Patent Inventors: Atsushi Sakamoto, Norihiro Kawatoko, Yuji Hamasaki, Hidehiko Kanda, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Aya Hayashi, Jiro Moriyama, Masashi Hayashi, Hirokazu Tanaka
Applicaton #: 20070013732
Class: 347020000 (USPTO)
01/18/07
The present invention can correct, when a printing position is displaced by an inclination of a printing head for example, the displacement in an easy and effective manner and also allows a user to easily recognize the displacement of the printing position to correct the displacement. To realize this, dots for forming a test pattern are formed by different scannings by a nozzle group including a plurality of nozzles positioned at one end side of a nozzle row and a nozzle group including a plurality of nozzles positioned at the other end side of the nozzle row. Depending on displacements of the printing positions of these dots, the plurality of nozzles constituting the nozzle row are divided to a plurality of divided nozzle groups. Then, the printing position is adjusted on the basis of the divided nozzle groups.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] It is an objective of the present invention to provide an ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method by which, when a printing position is displaced by an inclination of a printing head for example, the displacement can be corrected in an easy and effective manner and by which the displacement of the printing position can be easily recognized and corrected by a user.
[0013] In the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet printing apparatus for printing an image on a printing medium by using a printing head having a nozzle row in which a plurality of nozzles that can eject ink are arranged to repeat a scanning and a transportation operation, the scanning being performed for causing the nozzle to eject ink while moving the printing head in a main scanning direction and the transportation operation being performed for transporting the printing medium in a sub scanning direction crossing the main scanning direction, the ink jet printing apparatus comprising:
[0014] setting means for setting a number at which the nozzle row is divided for dividing a plurality of nozzles constituting the nozzle row to a plurality of divided nozzle groups in accordance with a displacement amount in the main scanning direction between a first printed image printed, during first a scanning, by a first nozzle group including a plurality of nozzles positioned at one end side of the nozzle row and a second printed image printed, during a second scanning different from the first scanning, by a second nozzle group including a plurality of nozzles positioned at the other end side of the nozzle row; and
[0015] correcting means for correcting a printing position on the basis of the divided nozzle groups divided in accordance with the number at which the nozzle row is divided.
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