An ink jet process is used to deposit a material layer to a desired thickness. Layout data is converted to per-cell grayscale values, each representing ink volume to be locally delivered. The grayscale values are used to generate a halftone pattern to deliver variable ink volume (and thickness) to the substrate. The halftoning provides for a relatively continuous layer (e.g., without unintended gaps or holes) while providing for variable volume and, thus, contributes to variable ink/material buildup to achieve desired thickness. The ink is jetted as liquid or aerosol that suspends material used to form the material layer, for example, an organic material used to form an encapsulation layer for a flat panel device. The deposited layer is then cured or otherwise finished to complete the process.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes a recording head configured to discharge a liquid to form a pattern on a recording medium and a reading device configured to read the pattern. The apparatus further includes circuitry configured to form at least two first markers while moving the recording head relative to the recording medium in a head movement direction; form a second marker at one of positions of the at least two first markers, to form a pattern including a reference marker formed with one of the at least two first markers and a measurement marker in which the second marker is overlaid on another of the at least two first markers; and measure a distance between the reference marker and the measurement marker in the head movement direction based on information obtained by the reading device.

A printing system is provided and includes an image processing portion that generates a generated image by image processing, and a printing portion that performs printing on a medium based on the generated image. The image processing portion generates the generated image by performing a quantization processing that performs quantization by comparing the pixel value of each pixel in the input image with a threshold, and in the quantization processing, calculates a dot influence value indicating to what extent a position corresponding to a selected pixel is covered by the ink dots formed at the position set on the medium in correspondence with the peripheral pixels of the selected pixel, performs adjustment of reflecting the dot influence value on at least one of the pixel value of the selected pixel or the threshold, and compares the pixel value and the threshold based on a value after adjustment.

Systems, methods, software for monitoring usage of a recording medium in an image forming apparatus. In one embodiment, a usage monitor receives a raster image, and identifies thresholds that distinguish different intensity levels reproduced by different drop sizes of the recording material. The usage monitor identifies a set of pixel values for a block of pixels from the raster image, performs a vectorized comparison of the set of pixel values to each of the thresholds to generate sets of comparison bits, determines a number of set bits in each of the sets of comparison bits, and updates a threshold counter for each of the thresholds based on the number of set bits. The usage monitor may then compute drop counts for different drop sizes based on the threshold counter for each of the thresholds.

A recording system for recording a recording image based on image data by repeating a pass operation in which a nozzle column discharges ink while reciprocating relatively to a recording medium in a main scanning direction to form dots on the recording medium, and a conveying operation of relatively moving the nozzle column and the recording medium in a sub-scanning direction crossing the main scanning direction, the recording system including an assigning section for obtaining a plurality of halftone data which is generated with respect to the same area of the image data based on the image data, and which corresponds to the ink of a predetermined color, and then assigning each of the halftone data obtained to the pass operations in the same direction in reciprocation in the main scanning direction in a predetermined recording area.

A recording system for recording a recording image based on image data by repeating a pass operation in which a nozzle column discharges ink while reciprocating relatively to a recording medium in a main scanning direction to form dots on the recording medium, and a conveying operation of relatively moving the nozzle column and the recording medium in a sub-scanning direction crossing the main scanning direction, the recording system including an assigning section for obtaining a plurality of halftone data which is generated with respect to the same area of the image data based on the image data, and which corresponds to the ink of a predetermined color, and then assigning each of the halftone data obtained to the pass operations in the same direction in reciprocation in the main scanning direction in a predetermined recording area.

An object of the present disclosure is to reduce density unevenness and streaks of an image that is printed in a case where it is not possible to implement sufficient correction only by the correction for a defective nozzle. One embodiment of the present invention is an image processing apparatus that performs processing for an input image for an image forming apparatus performing printing on a printing medium by using a print head in which a plurality of printing elements is arrayed, the image processing apparatus including: a storage unit configured to store density characteristic information indicating an output density for each tone for each of the printing elements; a target value acquisition unit configured to acquire a target characteristic indicating a target value for each tone; and a first correction unit configured to correct the input image based on the density characteristic information and the target value.

Density unevenness accompanying a variation in an ejection characteristic of each nozzle is reduced without worsening granularity of an image. To this end, an image processing apparatus generates first corrected data by correcting image data by using a first correction table common to the plurality of nozzles. Further, the image processing apparatus generates second corrected data by correcting the image data by using a second correction table for each of the plurality of nozzles. Furthermore, the image processing apparatus generates first quantized data by quantizing the first corrected data and generates second quantized data by quantizing the second corrected data. After that, the image processing apparatus generates N-valued print data based on the first quantized data and the second quantized data.

A printing apparatus includes a printing unit discharging a plurality of different pigmented inks onto a transfer member and forming an ink image, a processing unit performing processing such that each of the pigmented inks applied on the transfer member forms a layer, and a transfer unit transferring the ink image from the transfer member onto the printing medium conveyed by the conveyance unit. The pigmented inks include cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks as pigmented inks of four basic colors, and at least one pigmented ink different from the pigmented inks of basic colors. A first ink at least one of the pigmented inks of the basic colors is applied onto the transfer member after a second ink is applied. The second ink is the pigmented ink different from the pigmented inks of the basic colors and has a color material density lower than that of the first ink.

An object is to enable highly accurate density unevenness correction while suppressing a reduction in productivity of printing accompanying correction value calculation for density unevenness correction. In the image processing apparatus, density correction information that specifies an output tone value for implementing a target density for an input tone value for each nozzle and which does not include the influence by a non-ejectable nozzle that cannot eject ink normally is acquired. In a case where a non-ejectable nozzle is detected during printing processing, output tone values corresponding to the detected non-ejectable nozzle and peripheral nozzles thereof among output tone values specified in the density correction information are changed.