Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Patent
1998-06-24
2000-01-04
Le, N.
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
347 9, B41J 221, B41J 2938
Patent
active
060102071
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a printer, particularly to a color printer for printing multiple colors provided with ink jet heads and a printing method using the color printer.
BACKGROUND TECHNOLOGY
A method of printing multiple colors by synthesizing colors on a recording medium (paper) is known, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 3-244550.
According to this publication, there are provided a plurality of nozzle holes comprising first, second and third groups of nozzle holes respectively provided on the nozzle surfaces of ink jet heads for discharging magenta, cyan and yellow (hereinafter abbreviated as M, C and Y) ink, group by group. The multiple colors are printed by mounting the ink jet heads on a carriage and scanning in main and auxiliary scanning direction along the recording medium, and discharging ink from the nozzle holes.
In such a method, it is possible to synthesize printed dots of synthesized red, green and blue (hereinafter abbreviated as R, G and B) by precisely superimposing the printed dots of different primary colors (any of M, C and Y) over one another while shifting location by one pitch, or by integral times of one pitch, in the main or auxiliary scanning direction.
That is, it is possible to print synthesized multiple colors having no smudge therein with a relatively simple mechanism while performing a scanning operation which is not so different from that when printing monochrome. Accordingly, the multiple color printer using this method has quickly become widespread.
There are the following three kinds of methods employed in the aforementioned printing method.
This is a method, as shown in FIGS. 17 and 18, for making a print using printing heads on which groups of nozzle holes of different colors of M, C and Y are sequentially arranged in the auxiliary scanning direction.
This method comprises synthesizing colors by performing the main scanning while shifting every n pitch corresponding to respective groups of nozzle holes in the auxiliary scanning direction so that printed dots of different primary colors are superimposed over one another. Hereupon, the sequence of superimposition of the primary colors is always constant regardless of the normal or reverse direction of the main scanning direction (which is the same as the order of arrangement of the groups of different colors in the auxiliary scanning direction).
Accordingly, the tone of the same color in the printed image is always uniform even if the printing speed increases with bidirectional printing scanning. However, this is contrary to the demand for miniaturization and compactness of the apparatus because the dimensions of the heads in the auxiliary scanning direction increase, and hence the volume needed for the entire apparatus increases.
This is a method, as shown in FIG. 19, for making a print using printing heads on which groups of n nozzle holes are provided for each different color of M, C and Y, and are sequentially arranged in the main scanning direction.
According to this method, the dimensions of the heads in the auxiliary scanning direction decrease, and hence the volume needed for the entire apparatus decreases. However, when printing, printed dots of different primary colors are superimposed over one another by n lines (width of n dots) under one-time main scanning which is not accompanied by scanning in the auxiliary scanning direction. Further, printed dots of different primary colors are superimposed over one another by n subsequent lines (by the lines extending from the n+1 line to the 2n line from the beginning) by performing scanning in the main scanning direction while shifting every next n pitch.
At this time, the sequence of superimposition of primary colors is reversed by reversing the main scanning direction, thereby changing the tone of the synthesized colors. Accordingly, when bidirectional printing scanning is performed, streaks are produced on the printed image every n pitch distance in the auxiliary scanning direction owing to the chan
REFERENCES:
patent: 4518270 (1985-05-01), Hendrischk
patent: 4834564 (1989-05-01), Oda
Citizen Watch Co. Ltd.
Le N.
Nguyen Thinh
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