The present disclosure prevents a visible pattern corresponding to the pattern of a mask from being noticeable and enables more appropriate printing. A printing apparatus 10 performing printing by an inkjet scheme includes: an inkjet head 102; and a controller 20, configured to control the operation of a main scan driver 16 and a sub scan driver 18 to perform a main scanning operation multiple times on each position on a medium 50. In the main scanning operation, for at least part of ejection positions serving as ejection targets of ink droplets in the main scanning operation, the controller 20 causes the inkjet head 102 to eject an ink droplet in accordance with a mask for selecting part of the at least part of ejection positions. In the main scanning operation at one time, the controller 20 causes the inkjet head 102 to eject an ink droplet in accordance with a preset first mask. In the main scanning operation at another time different from the one time, the controller 20 causes the inkjet head 102 to eject an ink droplet in accordance with a second mask for selecting an ejection position in a pattern different from the first mask.

A recording device includes a recording unit configured to execute recording on a recording medium using a color material of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and a control unit configured to control recording executed by the recording unit, wherein the control unit causes the recording unit to record an edge region of black data included in image data using at least the color material of black, causes the recording unit to record an inner region on an inner side of the edge region of the black data using at least the color material of cyan, magenta, and yellow, and sets the amount of the color material of black per unit area of the edge region to be greater than the amount of the color material of black per unit area of the inner region.

A method for color mapping is disclosed based on obtaining a measurement of one or more characteristics of an imaging system. A set of color mappings are provided and the color mapping is selected based on the measurement. Each of the color mappings enables a mapping from a first color space to Neugebauer Primary area coverage vector space. A method for generating a color mapping is disclosed.

Certain examples described herein relate to printer calibration. In certain cases, measurement data is received, the measurement data indicative of an adjustment to be applied to a given colorant in a set of colorants printable by a printing system. In certain examples, a Neugebauer primary area coverage (NPac) vector comprising an area coverage of a first Neugebauer primary (NP) is obtained. Based on the received measurement data, the NPac vector is adjusted by decreasing the area coverage in the NPac vector of the first NP and increasing an area coverage in the NPac vector of a second NP. The first NP and the second NP correspond to colorant combinations that differ by a predetermined amount of the given colorant.

A method is described. The method comprises determining a lightness coordinate value corresponding to a first color value along a black-white axis in an input device color space. A set of color values corresponding to the lightness coordinate value, in the input device color space is determined. A subset of the set, based on the respective angular positions of the color values in the set and an angular position of the first color value is determined. The method comprises deriving a set of print color space values of a target printing system comprising print color space values corresponding to the subset and a color value corresponding to the position of the lightness coordinate value, based on a predetermined association between input device color space values and print color space values. The method comprises determining a given print color space value corresponding to the first color value based on the derived set of print color space values.

Ink containing metal particles is ejected from a print head, in accordance with a plurality of print ratios corresponding to a plurality of scans of the print head relative to a unit region of a print medium. At least one of the plurality of print ratios is set as a high print ratio which is higher than others. A height of the high print ratio, in a case where a scan corresponding to the high print ratio is a Lth (L: integral number) scan in the plurality of print scans, is higher than a height of the high print ratio, in a case where a scan corresponding to the high print ratio is a Nth (N>L; N: integral number) scan in the plurality of print scans.

Certain examples described herein relate to printer calibration. In certain cases, measurement data is received, the measurement data indicative of an adjustment to be applied to a given colorant in a set of colorants printable by a printing system. In certain examples, a Neugebauer primary area coverage (NPac) vector comprising an area coverage of a first Neugebauer primary (NP) is obtained. Based on the received measurement data, the NPac vector is adjusted by decreasing the area coverage in the NPac vector of the first NP and increasing an area coverage in the NPac vector of a second NP. The first NP and the second NP correspond to colorant combinations that differ by a predetermined amount of the given colorant.

The present disclosure prevents a visible pattern corresponding to the pattern of a mask from being noticeable and enables more appropriate printing. A printing apparatus 10 performing printing by an inkjet scheme includes: an inkjet head 102; and a controller 20, configured to control the operation of a main scan driver 16 and a sub scan driver 18 to perform a main scanning operation multiple times on each position on a medium 50. In the main scanning operation, for at least part of ejection positions serving as ejection targets of ink droplets in the main scanning operation, the controller 20 causes the inkjet head 102 to eject an ink droplet in accordance with a mask for selecting part of the at least part of ejection positions. In the main scanning operation at one time, the controller 20 causes the inkjet head 102 to eject an ink droplet in accordance with a preset first mask. In the main scanning operation at another time different from the one time, the controller 20 causes the inkjet head 102 to eject an ink droplet in accordance with a second mask for selecting an ejection position in a pattern different from the first mask.

Provided is quantization processing that can reduce color development defect due to dot overlapping and can output an image with reduced granularity when the image is printed by using multiple kinds of colorants. To this end, dot arrangement information for a colorant for which dot arrangement is already determined among multiple kinds of colorants is acquired for a predetermined region of the image, and an evaluation value of each pixel included in the predetermined region is derived based on the arrangement information. In addition, for the predetermined region, a target value for a predetermined colorant for which dot arrangement is yet to be determined is derived based on the image. Then, whether or not to arrange a dot of the predetermined colorant in the predetermined region is determined based on the target value and the evaluation value.

An image capturing unit includes a sensor unit that image-captures a predetermined area including a subject; and a reference chart unit that is arranged in the predetermined area and captured with the subject by the sensor unit.