An image forming apparatus includes a carriage which is movably provided in a main scanning direction, a sub-carriage which is movably supported in a sub-scanning direction substantially orthogonal to the main scanning direction with respect to the carriage and performs recording on a recording medium from a held recording head, and a biasing member which is attached to a locking portion of the carriage and a locking portion of the sub-carriage and applies a force to the sub-carriage with respect to the carriage in three directions of the main scanning direction (first direction), the sub-scanning direction (second direction), and a vertical direction (third direction) substantially orthogonal to the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction.

An image processing apparatus is configured to generate a plurality of pieces of partial printing data by executing a generating process including a color conversion process. A printing execution device performs N-th and (N+1)-th partial printing. An area in which the N-th partial printing is performed includes an overlap area, and first and second non-overlap areas respectively arranged on upstream and downstream sides, in the conveying direction, with respect to the overlap area. In the overlap area, dots are formed by both the N-th and (N+1)-th partial printings. The color conversion process includes a first converting process for the first non-overlap area with reference to a first profile, a second converting process for the second non-overlap area with reference to a second profile, and a third converting process for the overlap area, the third converting process being different from both the first and second converting process.

A recording device includes a recording head housed in a carriage, and for discharging a droplet on an obverse surface of a medium to perform recording on the medium, a support section having a support surface for supporting a reverse surface of the medium, and a heater for heating the droplet adhered to the obverse surface of the medium. The carriage is provided with a collection section capable of collecting steam generated when the droplet is heated by the heater. The recording head includes a nozzle cover provided with a plurality of holes for discharging the droplet. The nozzle cover includes a nozzle surface opposed to the support surface The collection section is formed of a material higher in hydrophilic property than the nozzle surface.

An ultraviolet (UV) inkjet printing method providing a stacked printing edge with a smooth effect is disclosed. After an inkjet head is controlled to print an image X on a substrate, a distance between the inkjet head and a surface of the substrate is kept unchanged, and the inkjet head is again controlled to print bi-directionally for at least once on the image X. After completing the above steps, the inkjet head is further controlled to print an image X on the image X on the substrate, wherein the image X consists of pixels expanded from the image X, such that the image X completely covers the image X, forming a smooth arc surface at peripheral edges of the image X.

Described is an assembly of a guiding structure and a print head carriage, the print head carriage comprising a base carriage controllably movable relative to the guiding structure along a first horizontal axis, the print head carriage comprising a sub-carriage controllably movable relative to the base carriage along a second horizontal axis. The print head carriage comprises an intermediate carriage controllably movable relative to the base carriage along a vertical axis, the sub-carriage mounted on the intermediate carriage for moving together with the intermediate carriage relative to the base carriage, the sub-carriage controllably movable relative to the intermediate carriage along the second horizontal axis.

A recording system for recording a recording image based on image data by repeating a pass operation in which a nozzle row discharges ink while moving relatively to a recording medium in a main scanning direction and a transport operation in which the nozzle row and the recording medium relatively move in a sub scanning direction intersecting the main scanning direction, includes: a code detecting unit that detects an area where code information included in the image data is located; and a recording controller that controls the pass operation and the transport operation based on the image data and a result of the detection by the code detecting unit, in which the recording controller controls such that the number of times of the pass operation of recording the area is smaller than the number of times of the pass operation of recording an area adjacent to the area in the main scanning direction.

A printing apparatus includes a recording section including a plurality of ink heads configured to discharge, ink, a first reaction solution head, and a second reaction solution head configured to discharge the reaction solution, a driving section configured to drive the recording section, and a controller configured to execute causing the driving section to move the recording section in a first direction, causing the plurality of ink heads to discharge the ink, and causing the first reaction solution head and the second reaction solution head to discharge the reaction solution. The plurality of ink heads are arranged in the first direction. The first reaction solution head is located downstream in the first direction of an ink head located most downstream in the first direction. The second reaction solution head is located between two ink heads located adjacent to each other in the first direction.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes: a discharge head including nozzles; a head scanning mechanism that reciprocatingly moves the discharge head in a main scanning direction; a conveyer that conveys a recording medium in a sub-scanning direction; and a controller. In one pass, the controller executes: recording processing in which an image is formed on the recording medium by moving the discharge head in the main scanning direction and discharging liquid from the discharge head; setting processing in which the discharge head moves to a starting position of the recording processing for a subsequent pass following the one pass by changing a moving direction of the discharge head at a standstill position; and conveyance processing in which the recording medium is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction.

A printing method and a printing apparatus are provided. After ink droplets of a photocurable ink are landed on a print medium, a scan of applying a light to cure the ink droplets to form dots is performed alternately in a forward direction and a backward direction with respect to a predetermined unit region, and a time from landing to curing of the ink droplets onto the print medium differs between the forward direction and the backward direction. The printing method includes: providing the ink droplets that include: a large dot having a large amount of ink per droplet, and a small dot having a smaller amount of ink per droplet than that of the large dot; and controlling ejection of the ink droplets, such that number of passes when forming the large dot is greater than number of passes when forming the small dot, when forming a print image.

An inkjet printer comprises a transport mechanism (120) for transporting a substrate along a first axis, a print engine (160) comprising at least two inkjet print bars (165.1 . . . 8) arranged along the first axis, and a controller for controlling the ejection of ink by the at least two inkjet print bars. It further comprises at least two first encoders for the determination of at least two first positions of substrate locations along the first axis and a compensation module for processing the at least two determined first positions to generate at least one first individual compensation parameter for each of the at least two inkjet print bars (165.1 . . . 8). The first compensation parameters are transmitted to the controller to influence the ejection of ink in such a way that effects due to variations of the at least two first positions of the substrate along the first axis are compensated. The effects of positioning errors that may affect different print bars (165.1 . . . 8) arranged along the longitudinal axis of the print engine (160) differently may be compensated using the encoders, individually for the different print bars (165.1 . . . 8).