An image processing apparatus has a determination unit that determines a print operation to be performed and a generation unit that generates quantized data for printing a dot by comparing a threshold value and the multi-valued data. In a case of performing a first print operation, dot arrangement of the multiple types of inks printed on the print medium by the print unit on a basis of pieces of quantized data generated by the generation unit is higher in exclusiveness and dispersibility between or among dots of the multiple types of inks and lower in an overlap rate between or among the dots of the multiple types of inks than dot arrangement of the multiple types of inks printed on the print medium by the print unit on a basis of the pieces of quantized data generated by the generation unit in the case of performing the second print operation.

From among a plurality of elements included in a printing head and arrayed in a predetermined direction, a faulty element that is unable to form dots properly on a printing medium is identified. At least one of correction processing for increasing a value of multi-valued input image data corresponding to the faulty element and correction processing for decreasing a threshold in a quantization process for the faulty element is performed. Complementary dot data is generated for the faulty element by taking the dot data generated for the identified faulty element as dot data corresponding to an element near the identified faulty element in the predetermined direction.

An image processing apparatus which performs image processing for print processing, including: a pseudo halftone processing unit configured to perform pseudo halftone processing by dithering with respect to an input image, and generate a halftone image constituted by plural dots, and a threshold matrix holding unit configured to hold a threshold matrix used for the pseudo halftone processing, wherein in the threshold matrix, thresholds are arranged such that the halftone image has a density region in which dots to be formed depending on a density of the input image are not rotational symmetric on a 90 basis, and orientations of the dots differ from each other in the density region.

An image processing apparatus that prints an image includes a preliminary halftone processing unit configured to determine whether a preliminary dot through a dithering method is to be formed, a final halftone processing unit configured to determine whether a dot to be printed through an error diffusion method is to be formed, and a dither result application level control unit configured to control a dither result application level which is a level at which probability that the dot to be printed will be formed is raised with the final halftone processing unit when the preliminary dot is to be formed in the preliminary halftone processing unit. The dither result application level control unit reduces the dither result application level during printing in a case of copying a reflected document or a case where the image data contains many high-frequency components, compared to other instances of printing.

A control apparatus for generating a control signal for controlling a printer on the basis of an input signal includes: an arithmetic unit configured to generate an error diffusion processing signal by subtracting, from the input signal, an error diffusion output signal output from a diffusion matrix that determines a distribution of a print density error; a multiplier unit configured to generate an intermediate signal by multiplying the error diffusion processing signal by a correction gain for controlling a correction amount of the print density error; and a quantizer unit configured to generate the control signal by quantizing the intermediate signal.

A temporary dot pattern at a dot pattern determining target gradation is determined by adding or removing dots as much as the number of dots corresponding to a gradation difference to or from a dot pattern at a gradation at which a dot pattern is already determined, and a dot pattern at a dot pattern determining target gradation is determined by performing a replacement process of replacing dots including some of dots at a dot pattern determined gradation among the dots in the temporary dot pattern with non-dot arrangements. A halftone mask may be constituted by a group of dot patterns at each gradation, or the halftone mask may be constituted by setting a dot pattern for each gradation as a threshold value.

An image forming device is provided, including a generation part, a determination part and a printing part. The generation part generates a plurality of types of binarized image data with respect to original image data. The determination part determines the binarized image data, in which an error between each of the plurality of the types of the binarized image data and the original image data is smaller, among the plurality of the types of the binarized image data. The printing part prints the binarized image data determined by the determination part on a medium.

In order to obtain a smooth gradation reproduction in an image to be formed, an image processing apparatus inputs first data of an image to be formed which includes a color and second data of the image to be formed which does not include the color and has continuous gradation; determines printing material amount data corresponding to the first data; determines, based on the printing material amount data, a dot pattern when forming the image by performing a printing scan a plurality of times on a printing medium; and generates, based on the second data, a switching signal that switches each pixel in accordance with an area ratio of each of a first dot pattern and a second dot pattern.

An inkjet method adapting to a three-dimensional printing device is provided. The inkjet method includes following steps: judging whether a first reference pixel value of a first reference pixel in a first reference image is greater than or equal to a preset threshold value to determine a first pixel value of a first pixel in a first inkjet image; generating a weight value corresponding to a second reference pixel according to number of the second reference pixel adjacent to the first reference pixel in the first reference image and a second reference image; and adjusting a second reference pixel value of the second reference pixel in the first reference image and the second reference image according to the first reference pixel value, the first pixel value, and the weight value. In addition, the above three-dimensional printing device is also provided.

An image processor sets the dot value to a value for forming a dot in a case where the dot forming condition is satisfied; sets the dot value to a value for forming no dot in a case where the dot forming condition is not satisfied and the target pixel is not the edge pixel; sets the dot value to a value for forming a dot in a case where the dot forming condition is not satisfied and a particular condition is satisfied; and sets a distribution error value to a smaller value than another error value in a case where the dot forming condition is not satisfied and the particular condition is satisfied and thereby the dot value is set to the value for forming a dot.