In some examples, a system receives image data for printing by a printer, and for a given colorant of a plurality of colorants to be used to print an image based on the image data, selects a plurality of different types of masks to use when dispensing printing fluid drops of the given colorant when printing the image. The system generates control data for printing the image using the selected plurality of different types of masks.

A printer and a method for printing of pages on a continuous media, such as labels, with any desired or practical spacing using fixed head printheads that have spacing limitations for printing pages on the continuous media. The printer can be configured to detect a top of form mark on the continuous media as it is moved through a media path in the printer and initiating printing of an image on an adjacent page or label at the position indicated by the top of form mark.

In an image forming apparatus, a correction processing unit prints a test pattern using a recording head, determines ink ejection malfunction positions on the basis of a scanned image of the test pattern, sets one of first and second correction modes for each of the ink ejection malfunction positions in accordance with a density of the ink ejection malfunction position on the basis of the scanned image, and performs the correction process for the ink ejection malfunction position in the set first or second correction mode. In the first correction mode, the correction process is performed for both a nozzle corresponding to the ink ejection malfunction position and an adjacent nozzle of the nozzle. In the second correction mode, the correction process is not performed for the nozzle corresponding to the ink ejection malfunction position but is performed for the adjacent nozzle.

To enable highly accurate density unevenness correction while suppressing a reduction in productivity in printing accompanying correction value calculation for density unevenness correction. Based on an image obtained by scanning a chart including patches having uniform density for each tone value, a density characteristic of each nozzle is acquired. A non-ejectable nozzle that cannot eject ink normally is detected by analyzing a pattern for detecting the non-ejectable nozzle in the image obtained by scanning the chart. At the time of acquiring the density characteristic, the density characteristic is acquired based on a density measured value of an area of the image, which corresponds to a nozzle that is not detected as the non-ejectable nozzle.

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to generate inverse transfer functions for each of a plurality of color planes to compensate for non-functioning pel forming elements based on ink deposition functions for groups of pel forming elements including functioning pel forming elements and the non-functioning pel forming elements, wherein the inverse transfer functions transform output digital counts and the ink deposition functions represent output ink amount versus input digital count and generate compensated halftones for each of a plurality of color planes based on the inverse transfer functions.

A tone reproduction curve for a printing apparatus is periodically generated based on printed items produced by the printing apparatus. The tone reproduction curve is adjusted between periodic print-based generations of the tone reproduction curve by: determining the amount of area coverage of marking material applied by the printing apparatus during printing (in subsequent periods following an initial period in which the tone reproduction curve was generated); weighting the amount of area coverage in each of the subsequent periods differently based on how distant each of the subsequent periods is from the initial period to produce a weighted moving average of the area coverages of the marking material; and adjusting the tone reproduction curve based on the weighted moving average of the area coverages of the marking material.

A method of printing onto a planar box substrate used for assembling a box having predetermined box dimensions. The method includes the steps of: determining box dimensions based on the planar box substrate; retrieving generic instructions for image content to be printed on the box substrate; preparing box-specific transformations using the generic instructions and the box dimensions; applying the box-specific transformations on design components to generate image content portions commensurate with image content regions; generating image data based on the image content portions; and printing onto the box substrate using the image data.

For a multi-pass printing, an image of a unit area is printed by M printing scans of M print regions of first and second nozzle arrays. Each of N pieces of column data is printed by a different printing scan. Ejection data for the first nozzle array is generated using a first mask pattern and ejection data for the second nozzle array is generated using a second mask pattern different from the first mask pattern, for each of the N pieces of column data. On that basis, the first mask pattern and the second mask pattern have a complementary relationship in each of the M print regions. Further, in each of the first mask pattern and the second mask pattern, a combination of print regions, of the M print regions, for printing dots at the same position on the print medium has a mutually complementary relationship.

In the print data for a nozzle of a printer, white dots are replaced by pre-ejection pulses. One or more repetitions of the pre-ejection pulses may be inserted into the print data, depending on the actual print speed of the printer, to determine print speed-dependent print data with which the nozzle is activated to print a print image with high print quality.

Print data is organized over rows and columns. The columns of each row are selectively assigned to calibration tables respectively corresponding to printheads of a pagewide array in accordance with a substrate advancement skew relative to the pagewide array. The calibration tables are applied to the columns of each row respectively assigned to the calibration tables. The columns of each row to which the calibration tables have been applied are printed using the printheads respectively corresponding to the calibration tables.