Printing device, printing program, printing method and ...

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

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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