A printer having a carriage (10) movable along a guide beam (12) in a main scanning direction (y), and a number of print heads (14) mounted on the carriage (10), each print head having a plurality of printing elements (16), wherein the carriage (10) has at least two sub-carriages (38) each of which carries at least one of the print heads (14) and is independently guided at the guide beam (12), and the sub-carriages (38) are coupled for joint movement in the main scanning direction (y) but are movable relative to one another in a sub-scanning direction (x) normal to the main scanning direction (y).

A printing method and a printing apparatus are provided. The print quality of a printing apparatus in a multi-pass method is improved. A scan of applying light after ink droplets of photocurable ink land on a print medium and curing the ink droplets to form dots is performed on a predetermined unit region alternately in a forward direction and a backward direction multiple times. The time from landing of the ink droplets onto the print medium to curing differs between the forward direction and the backward direction. In a subsequent scan to form a surface layer of the unit region in the scan performed multiple times, an ejection controller controls ejection of the ink droplets such that the dots in the surface layer ejected to the print medium are not merged together.

A printing apparatus controls an ejection timing of a printing unit such that a first distance becomes shorter than a second distance, where the first and second distances are distances in a scanning direction between a landing position at which an ink droplet lands on a printing medium in a case where the printing unit scans in a first direction and a landing position at which an ink droplet lands on the printing medium in a case where the printing unit scans in a second direction in first and second printing modes, respectively.

Provided is a dot recording apparatus in which a first dot group is formed using a first nozzle group, a second dot group is formed using a second nozzle group, a third dot group is formed using a third nozzle group, of which the distance from the first nozzle group in a direction is a first nozzle row distance, a fourth dot group is formed using a fourth nozzle group, of which the distance from the second nozzle group in a direction is a second nozzle row distance, which differs from the first nozzle row distance, and inclination of the main scanning direction and a nozzle row are calculated on the basis of a distance in the main scanning direction from the first dot group up to the third dot group, and a distance in the main scanning direction from the second dot group up to the fourth dot group.

A printing apparatus includes a liquid discharge device, a carriage, and a controller. The liquid discharge device includes a first nozzle row to discharge a first liquid to form an image and a second nozzle row to discharge a second liquid of a type different from the first liquid. The carriage is mounted with the liquid discharge device and reciprocally movable in a main scanning direction. The controller is configured to control the liquid discharge device to discharge the second liquid onto a region of a medium including another region onto which the first liquid is discharged. The controller includes a control unit to control the liquid discharge device to discharge the second liquid from the second nozzle row in both of forward movement and backward movement of the carriage and discharge the first liquid from the first nozzle row in one of the forward movement and the backward movement.

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.

In one example, a carriage to carry a printhead back and forth over a print substrate includes an inboard part to hold the printhead and an outboard part to inhibit the flow of air under the carriage when the carriage is moving back and forth over the print substrate.

A recording apparatus includes an ejecting unit configured to eject a first ink for image forming and a substantially colorless second ink onto a recording surface of a recording medium, and a control unit configured to control ejecting operations of the first ink and the second ink. The second ink is permeation ink configured to permeate the first ink into the recording medium from the recording surface to an opposite surface of the recording medium. The control unit controls the ejecting unit to perform a plurality of ejecting operations of the first ink with respect to one ejecting operation of the second ink. An ejecting amount of the first ink ejected when the ejecting unit ejects both of the first ink and the second ink is greater than an ejecting amount of the first ink ejected when the ejecting unit ejects only the first ink without ejecting the second ink.

A printing apparatus including a plurality of printing units along one guide can read test patterns printed with a plurality of types of conveying amount of a recording medium and determine a conveying amount based on the reading result.

The recording method includes ejecting a first ink for image forming and a substantially colorless second ink onto a recording surface of a recording medium at an ejecting unit, and controlling ejecting operations of the first ink and the second ink in the ejecting unit. The second ink is permeation ink configured to permeate the first ink into the recording medium from the recording surface to an opposite surface of the recording medium, and the opposite surface is opposite the recording surface. The controlling includes performing a plurality of ejecting operations of the first ink with respect to one ejecting operation of the second ink, so that at least a part of a landing position of the second ink and a landing position of the first ink overlap on the recording medium.