An ink printing process employs per-nozzle droplet volume measurement and processing software that plans droplet combinations to reach specific aggregate ink fills per target region, guaranteeing compliance with minimum and maximum ink fills set by specification. In various embodiments, different droplet combinations are produced through different printhead/substrate scan offsets, offsets between printheads, the use of different nozzle drive waveforms, and/or other techniques. These combinations can be based on repeated, rapid droplet measurements that develop understandings for each nozzle of means and spreads for expected droplet volume, velocity and trajectory, with combinations of droplets being planned based on these statistical parameters. Optionally, random fill variation can be introduced so as to mitigate Mura effects in a finished display device. The disclosed techniques have many possible applications.

There are provided a printing system, a method of generating a halftone processing rule, a method of acquiring a characteristic parameter, image processing device and method, a halftone processing rule, a halftone image, a method of manufacturing a printed material, an ink jet printing system, and a program which are capable of reducing an operation load of a user and acquiring a halftone processing rule appropriate for the printing system. A characteristic parameter acquisition chart including a pattern for acquiring characteristic parameters related to characteristics of the printing system is output, and the output characteristic parameter acquisition chart is read by image reading means. The characteristic parameters are acquired by analyzing the read image of the characteristic parameter acquisition chart, and halftone processing rules that define the processing contents of halftone processes used in the printing system are generated based on the acquired characteristic parameters.

There is provided a method for rendering an image according to selected image quality attributes. Two or more image quality attributes are selected from a plurality of attributes of the image. A set of pigments for an area of the image and a density for each pixel of the area are determined. A quantity of pretreatment for deposition onto a print target is determined, where the pretreatment quantity is dependent on the pigments, the density, and the selected image quality attributes.

Provided are an image processing method, an image processing device, and an image recording apparatus capable of suppressing generation of beats, even in a case where streaky unevenness correction other than non-discharge correction of a recording element is performed, in any nozzle layout shapes. An image processing method comprises an abnormality detection step of detecting an abnormality for each recording element in a recording head in which a plurality of the recording elements are arranged; an invisibilization step of modulating densities of pixels to be recorded on a recording medium by the correction recording element including an abnormal recording element of which the abnormality has been detected to invisibilize a defect of an image, in order to correct the defect of the image resulting from the abnormal recording element depending on a detection result in the abnormality detection step; and a quantization step of quantizing an image to be recorded on the recording medium, and performing the quantization such that a peak frequency component of the quantization is located in a frequency band excluding a frequency band around a spatial frequency peak of a correction region that is a pixel group to be recorded on the recording medium by the correction recording element of which a density has been modulated by the invisibilization step.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes a head array including heads each having nozzles to discharge liquid onto a recording medium, arranged as a nozzle line in a sub-scanning direction; a moving part to move the head array alternately in the scanning direction and in the sub-scanning direction perpendicular to each other while discharging or not discharging the liquid; and a controller including a memory and a processor. The processor adjusts image data for juncture areas of two heads adjacent to each other in the sub-scanning direction; and drives the head array to discharge the liquid from the nozzles while the moving part moves the head array. The adjusting adjusts the image data such that the image data is thinned to make print rates for the juncture areas smaller at ends of the nozzle lines, and the print rates vary among the juncture areas.

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.

When a specified image is recorded while ranging over a boundary between a first dot recording range and a second dot recording range, a controller of an image recording apparatus judges whether or not a predetermined condition is fulfilled, the predetermined condition including at least one of a first condition which relates to a duty and a second condition which relates to a positional deviation in a scanning direction of a landing position of a liquid. If the predetermined condition is fulfilled, the dot belonging to a correcting portion is formed by correcting discharge in which the liquid in a discharge amount smaller than a set discharge amount is discharged. If the predetermined condition is not fulfilled, the dot belonging to the correcting portion is formed by ordinary discharge in which the liquid in the set discharge amount is discharged.

An ink printing process employs per-nozzle droplet volume measurement and processing software that plans droplet combinations to reach specific aggregate ink fills per target region, guaranteeing compliance with minimum and maximum ink fills set by specification. In various embodiments, different droplet combinations are produced through different printhead/substrate scan offsets, offsets between printheads, the use of different nozzle drive waveforms, and/or other techniques. These combinations can be based on repeated, rapid droplet measurements that develop understandings for each nozzle of means and spreads for expected droplet volume, velocity and trajectory, with combinations of droplets being planned based on these statistical parameters. Optionally, random fill variation can be introduced so as to mitigate Mura effects in a finished display device. The disclosed techniques have many possible applications.

The present disclosure prevents a visible pattern corresponding to the pattern of a mask from being noticeable and enables more appropriate printing. A printing apparatus 10 performing printing by an inkjet scheme includes: an inkjet head 102; and a controller 20, configured to control the operation of a main scan driver 16 and a sub scan driver 18 to perform a main scanning operation multiple times on each position on a medium 50. In the main scanning operation, for at least part of ejection positions serving as ejection targets of ink droplets in the main scanning operation, the controller 20 causes the inkjet head 102 to eject an ink droplet in accordance with a mask for selecting part of the at least part of ejection positions. In the main scanning operation at one time, the controller 20 causes the inkjet head 102 to eject an ink droplet in accordance with a preset first mask. In the main scanning operation at another time different from the one time, the controller 20 causes the inkjet head 102 to eject an ink droplet in accordance with a second mask for selecting an ejection position in a pattern different from the first mask.

A printing apparatus prints an image by applying ink to a print surface of an inclined print medium using a print head. A control apparatus for the printing apparatus acquires information on an inclination of the print surface. Based on the information, printing is controlled according to a print condition corresponding to a magnitude of the inclination of the print surface.