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 imaging apparatus includes a print engine having a printhead that generates ink drops, and a printhead carrier that carries the printhead in a first direction and in a second direction. A controller determines an initial print direction based on ink drop information obtained by printing patches in the first direction and in the second direction. The controller is operatively coupled to the print engine to print an image based on the initial print direction.

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.

A printing control apparatus includes a control unit configured to perform control so that a distribution ratio based on which color separation data separated as having a predetermined color is distributed into data for a first nozzle array and a distribution ratio based on which color separation data is distributed into data for a second nozzle array are different depending on a tone value in the color separation data, and a generation unit configured to generate printing data to be used for printing by the first nozzle array based on the distributed data for the first nozzle array and generate printing data to be used for printing by the second nozzle array based on the distributed data for the second nozzle array.

A printing method and a printing device are provided to reduce a difference in a degree of wet-spreading of a coating material. The printing method includes: a buffer layer forming step of forming, when there is a difference between a surface free energy of a print object which is an object to be printed and a surface free energy of a coating material applied to a surface of the print object, a buffer layer on the surface of the print object with a buffer material having a surface free energy differing from that of the print object or the coating material; and a printing step of printing by applying the coating material to the buffer layer.

Bidirectional multi-pass printing with three or more passes prints a high-quality image with reduced time difference unevenness. To this end, an image in a unit region on a printing medium is printed by a print head performing 2N+1 bidirectional print scans (where N is a natural number). In this printing, a print permission rate for an even-numbered print scan of the 2N+1 times of the print scans is set lower than the print permission rate for an odd-numbered print scan of the 2N+1 times of the print scans.

White-balance is improved when printing on colored media, while minimizing the time and use of costly materials required by present approaches. In an embodiment, the typical solid white fill or background layer is altered by including in the white layer one or more of the other colors already available in the printer to shade this layer. Thus, a small amount of cyan, for example, helps balance a pink-ish (red) media; yellow is used for blue media; and magenta is used for green media; as well as combinations thereof. A combination of transparent process inks and opaque white helps to maintain brightness (luminosity).

A printing apparatus includes a carriage mounted with a printing unit, a belt, a first motor configured to drive the belt at one end in a widthwise direction, a second motor configured to drive the belt at the other end in the widthwise direction, and a control unit configured to control the first motor and the second motor. The control unit performs first control by driving the first motor in which the carriage moves from a state in which the carriage is stopped. In the control, the second motor is controlled from a first state in which its torque is lower than that of the first motor to a second state in which its torque is higher than that in the first state.

A multi-directional single pass printing apparatus may include a print head comprising a collection of slots. The collection of slots may include a central slot for delivering a central slot fluid type, a first serial arrangement of first slots on a first side of the central slot to deliver a first series of respective fluid types and a second serial arrangement of second slots on a second side of the central slot opposite the first side. The second series of slots are to deliver a second series of respective fluid types, wherein the second series of respective fluid types mirror the first series of respective fluid types with respect to the central slot fluid type.

In an inkjet printer capable of performing an overprint process by feeding only in a first direction while reducing clogging of nozzles, a controller includes first, second and third controllers. The third controller instructs the first controller to perform a first image-printing scan, a first minute feed and a second image-printing scan without discharging an image ink from a first nozzle at an end portion of a first nozzle row in a first direction along a secondary scan direction; then performs a second minute feed of feeding a recording medium in the first direction along the secondary scan direction relative to a discharge head; and then instructs the second controller to perform a first base-printing scan, a first minute feed and a second base-printing scan without discharging a base ink from a second nozzle at an end portion of a second nozzle row in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, along the secondary scan direction.