Patent EP0730973A2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0730973A2
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EP
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Recording apparatus and method
Assignee: Canon Inc
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Filing: 1996-03-05
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2016-03-05
Abstract
Abstract A recording apparatus includes a recording unit having a nozzle line comprising a plurality of nozzles arranged along a sub-scan direction for recording a band having a record width corresponding to a length of the nozzle line onto a recording medium in accordance with an input image signal by discharging ink from the nozzles along a main scan direction orthogonal to the sub-scan direction, a transport unit for intermittently transporting the recording medium in the sub-scan direction, and a control unit for controlling the drive of the recording unit and the transport unit. The control unit sets a transport distance of the recording medium by the transport unit to a distance smaller than the record width when the image to be recorded on the recording medium comprises a plurality of bands. Each of the bands has at least one end having an image pattern complement to an image pattern at an end of adjacent band along the sub-scan direction. The length of the end in the sub-scan direction is equal to a difference between the record width and the transport distance.
Inventors
- 👤 Nobuhiko Ogata
- 👤 Kiyohisa Sugishima
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 13:40
CPC Classifications
B; B41; B41J; B41J2/00; B41J2/005; B41J2/01; B41J2/21; B41J2/2132; G; G06; G06K; G06K15/00; G06K15/02; G06K15/10; G06K15/102; G06K15/105; G06K15/107; G06K2215/00; G06K2215/0082; G06K2215/0094
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 43
Claim 1
Independent Claim
179 words
A recording apparatus comprising: recording means having a nozzle line comprising a plurality of nozzles arranged along a sub-scan direction for recording a band having a record width corresponding to a length of the nozzle line onto a recording medium in accordance with an input image signal by discharging ink from said nozzles along a main scan direction orthogonal to the sub-scan direction; transport means for intermittently transporting the recording medium in the sub-scan direction; and control means for controlling the drive of said recording means and said transport means; said control means setting a transport distance of the recording medium by said transport means to a distance smaller than the record width when the image to be recorded on the recording medium comprises a plurality of bands; each of the bands having at least one end having an image pattern complement to an image pattern at an end of adjacent band along the sub-scan direction; and the length of the end in the sub-scan direction being equal to a difference between the record width and the transport distance.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
34 words
A recording apparatus according to Claim 1 wherein the entire area in which ends of two adjacent bands along the sub-scan direction overlap is recorded by at least two scans of said recording means.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
54 words
A recording apparatus according to Claim 1 or 2 wherein said control means determines at least one of the width of the boundary area, the pixel pattern to be recorded in one scan and the density of the boundary area based on the input image signal or the count of the image input signal.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
73 words
A recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 through 3 wherein said recording means is for color recording and has recording heads one for each of a plurality of colors, and said control means determines at least one of the width of the boundary area, the pixel patterns to be recorded in one scan and the density of the boundary area based on the color of the band to be recorded.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
51 words
A recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 through 4 wherein said control means determines at least one of the width of the boundary area, the pixel patterns to be recorded in one scan and the density of the boundary area based on the type of the recording medium.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
36 words
A recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 3 through 5 wherein the density of the boundary area has a density gradient in a predetermined direction from the end of the boundary area of bands.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
36 words
A recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 through 6 wherein said recording means uses an electro-thermal transducer element for causing film boiling in the ink as energy generation means to discharge the ink.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
20 words
An information processing system having a recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 through 7 as output means.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
40 words
An information processing system according to Claim 8 wherein said information processing apparatus is a copying apparatus comprising: read means for reading a document sheet; and image processing means for processing the image data read by said image read means.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
191 words
A recording method applied to a recording apparatus comprising recording means having a nozzle line comprising a plurality of nozzles arranged along a sub-scan direction for recording a band having a record width corresponding to a length of the nozzle line onto a recording medium in accordance with an input image signal by discharging ink from said nozzles along a main scan direction orthogonal to the sub-scan direction, transport means for intermittently transporting the recording medium in the sub-scan direction, and control means for controlling the drive of said recording means and said transport means, said method comprising the steps of: setting a transport distance of the recording medium by said transport means to a distance smaller than the record width when the image to be recorded on the recording medium comprises a plurality of bands; rendering each of the bands to have at least one end having an image pattern complement to an image pattern at an end of adjacent band along the sub-scan direction; and making the length of the end in the sub-scan direction to be equal to a difference between the record width and the transport distance.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
37 words
A recording method according to Claim 10 further comprising the step of: recording the entire area in which ends of two adjacent bands along the sub-scan direction overlap by at least two scans of said recording means.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
55 words
A recording method according to Claim 10 or 11 further comprising the step of: determining at least one of the width of the boundary area, the pixel pattern to be recorded in one scan and the density of the boundary area based on the input image signal or the count of the image input signal.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
77 words
A recording method according to any one of Claims 10 through 12 wherein said recording means is for color recording and has recording heads one for each of a plurality of colors, and said method further comprising the step of: determining at least one of the width of the boundary area, the pixel patterns to be recorded in one scan and the density of the boundary area based on the color of the band to be recorded.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
52 words
A recording method according to any one of Claims 10 through 13 further comprising the step of: determining at least one of the width of the boundary area, the pixel patterns to be recorded in one scan and the density of the boundary area based on the type of the recording medium.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
36 words
A recording method according to any one of Claims 12 through 14 wherein the density of the boundary area has a density gradient in a predetermined direction from the end of the boundary area of bands.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
36 words
A recording method according to any one of Claims 10 through 15 wherein said recording means uses an electro-thermal transducer element for causing film boiling in the ink as energy generation means to discharge the ink.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
145 words
An ink jet recording apparatus having a recording head movable in a main scan direction for discharging ink from a plurality of nozzles and drive means for relatively moving said recording head and a recording medium in a sub-scan direction, comprising; control means for controlling said recording head and said drive means such that a record portion on one side along a sub-scan direction of a record area of an image recorded in one scan of the recording head overlaps a record portion on the other side along the sub-scan direction and center areas along the sub-scan direction do not overlap; and thinning and interpolation means for thinning record pixels on one side along the sub-scan direction for the image recorded in one scan of the recording head and interpolating record pixels on the other side along the sub-scan direction in accordance with the thinning.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
23 words
An ink jet recording apparatus according to Claim 17 further comprising: selection means for selecting thinning and interpolation patterns of the record pixels.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
29 words
An ink jet recording apparatus according to Claim 18 wherein said selection means selects the pattern in accordance with the density of the image derived from the image data.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
20 words
An ink jet recording apparatus according to Claim 18 wherein said selection means changes the pattern by a random number.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
44 words
An ink jet recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 17 through 20 wherein said recording head has an electro-thermal transducer element for generating thermal energy to cause film boiling in the ink as an energy to be used to discharge the ink.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
73 words
A recording apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium by a set of dots by discharging ink of at least one color from at least one recording head, comprising: image forming means for forming the image on the recording medium by scanning the recording head a plurality of times; said image forming means forming the image at the end of each scan of the recording head in a plurality of runs.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
34 words
A recording apparatus according to Claim 22 wherein said image forming means conducts the thinning and the interpolation of boundary area of adjacent images when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
35 words
A recording apparatus according to Claim 23 wherein said image forming means allows the selection of the processing patterns for the thinning and the interpolation when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
38 words
A recording apparatus according to Claim 24 wherein said image forming means selects the patterns for the thinning and the interpolation in synchronism with an external synchronization signal when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
32 words
A recording apparatus according to Claim 24 wherein said image forming means synchronously selects the patterns for the thinning and the interpolation when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
38 words
A recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 22 through 26 wherein said image forming means varies a position of the nozzle at the boundary of scans when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
31 words
A recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 24 through 27 wherein said image forming means selects the processing pattern in accordance with a degree of spread of the image.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
24 words
A recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 24 through 28 wherein said image forming means allows the generation of the processing pattern.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
40 words
A recording apparatus according to Claim 24 wherein said image forming means conducts the thinning and the interpolation of pixels at the end of a boundary area of an image adjacent to the image formed in a plurality of runs.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
30 words
A recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 22 through 30 further comprising: selection means for selecting an image signal to be controlled in accordance with the recording medium.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
43 words
A recording apparatus according to Claim 31 further comprising: control means for controlling a pulse width of a drive pulse of the recording head on accordance with the recording medium to control the amount of discharge of the ink from the recording head.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
74 words
A recording method by a recording apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium by a set of dots by discharging ink of at least one color from at least one recording head, comprising the step of: forming the image at an end of each scan of the recording head in a plurality of runs when the image is formed on the recording medium by scanning the recording head a plurality of times.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
31 words
A recording method according to Claim 33 wherein the thinning and the interpolation of boundary area of adjacent images are conducted when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
29 words
A recording method according to Claim 34 wherein the processing patterns for the thinning and the interpolation are selectable when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
35 words
A recording method according to Claim 35 wherein the patterns for the thinning and the interpolation are selected in synchronism with an external synchronization signal when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
29 words
A recording method according to Claim 35 wherein the patterns for the thinning and the interpolation are synchronously selected when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
35 words
A recording method according to any one of Claims 33 through 37 wherein a position of the nozzle at the boundary of scans is varied when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 39
Dependent Claim
28 words
A recording apparatus according to any one of Claims 35 through 38 wherein the processing pattern is selected in accordance with a degree of spread of the image.
Claim 40
Dependent Claim
21 words
A recording method according to any one of Claims 35 through 39 wherein the generation of the processing pattern is allowed.
Claim 41
Dependent Claim
37 words
A recording method according to Claim 35 wherein the thinning and the interpolation of pixels at the end of a boundary area of adjacent images are conducted when the image is formed in the plurality of runs.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
30 words
A recording method according to any one of Claims 33 through 41 further comprising the step of: selecting an image signal to be controlled in accordance with the recording medium.
Claim 43
Dependent Claim
43 words
A recording apparatus according to Claim 42 further comprising the step of: controlling a pulse width of a drive pulse of the recording head on accordance with the recording medium to control the amount of discharge of the ink from the recording head.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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