A networked product imaging system includes devices that provide the production of imaged goods. Sellers are easily integrated into the network with minimal or no inventory requirements. Customer requirements are provided to a central computing device (CCD) that has two-way communication with a plurality of geographically separated product image forming devices. The central computing device determines specifications for forming the image on the blank product in accordance with the customer's order. The central computing device selects a product image forming device from the plurality of geographically separated product forming devices for fulfilling the order, based upon factors that include the specification of the product image forming device available, the product image forming inventory and the blank product inventory available at the geographic location of the product image forming device. The selected product image forming device forms the image on the blank product at the remote location.

When performing on-sheet preliminary ink ejection, a control unit (a) determines a nozzle that performs the on-sheet preliminary ink ejection, (b) randomly selects on a print sheet an ejection position candidate of an ink droplet ejected from the determined nozzle, (c) determines whether the selected ejection position candidate is included by a mask area that includes a postprocessing object, (d1) if the selected ejection position candidate is not included by the mask area, sets as the selected ejection position candidate an ejection position of an ink droplet ejected from the determined nozzle, and (d2) if the selected ejection position candidate is included by the mask area, does not set as the selected ejection position candidate an ejection position of an ink droplet ejected from the determined nozzle and sets an ejection position of an ink droplet ejected from the determined nozzle outside of the mask area.

A controller checks ink quantity to be ejected to a specific area on a first side (specific area ink quantity) and determines an ink quantity ratio. The specific area is a strip-shaped area including a side edge on upstream side in a conveying direction of a paper sheet on the first side. When the ink quantity ratio is larger than a reference ink quantity ratio, the controller performs a black conversion process on pixels in a conversion target range. The conversion target range is a range corresponding to the specific area in the image data of the first side. The black conversion process is a process of converting a pixel to which three color inks, i.e. cyan, magenta, and yellow inks are to be ejected into a pixel to which only black ink is to be ejected.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes: a head which discharges a plurality of kinds of liquids; and a controller. The controller is configured to: calculate a total discharge amount of the liquids for a unit area of a recording medium based on discharge data for the unit area; determine whether the total discharge amount exceeds a predefined amount; in a case that the controller has determined that the total discharge amount exceeds the predefined amount, divide the discharge data into a plurality of pieces of divided discharge data, each of the pieces of divided discharge data indicating the total discharge amount of not more than the predefined amount; and perform a plurality of divided discharges for the unit area based on the pieces of divided discharge data.

A method for compensating for position-dependent density fluctuations of print nozzles in any inkjet printer by a computer. The computer produces, for all substrates used, compensation profiles for the position-dependent density fluctuations over all print heads of the inkjet printer and applies the compensation profiles to compensate for the position-dependent density fluctuations in the inkjet printer. The computer determines in each case printer-specific or print head-specific influences and print substrate-specific influence factors with a generic reference print substrate, from which a reference compensation profile is produced which depends on the surface coverage and location. From this the computer produces a total compensation profile which is used to compensate for position-dependent density fluctuations.

Provided are a decorative member manufacturing apparatus and a method for manufacturing a decorative member, which are capable of adjusting the tactile sensation in each portion of a decorative layer image-wise so as to obtain a desired tactile sensation.

In a case of manufacturing a decorative member having a decorative layer formed on a surface of a base material, by a jetting part, a fluid cured by receiving light is jetted toward respective portions of the surface of the base material to form the decorative layer; by a scattering part, fine particles are scattered to the fluid which has landed on the respective portions; and by a control part, the jetting part and the scattering part are controlled, in which the control part controls at least one of the jetting part or the scattering part depending on a control condition set in association with the respective portions according to a setting content regarding tactile sensation of the decorative member.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image former that includes ink dischargers of two or more colors and that forms an image on a recording medium; and a hardware processor that generates, in each of the ink dischargers, at least a first dot pattern of a first color with uniform density and a second dot pattern in a second color with uniform density. When the first dot pattern is combined with the second dot pattern, the hardware processor adjusts the second dot pattern based on a positional relationship of each dot in the first dot pattern.

Described herein are various technologies pertaining to an automated light field illumination container inspection and manufacture system. The system includes a plurality of cameras that capture images of a container when the container is illuminated by way of light field illumination. Bands in images that include reflections in the exterior surface of the sidewall are identified, and a determination is made as to whether the container is defective based upon the identified bands.

An ink jet recording apparatus of a line-recording-head type includes one or more recording heads using the same ink and performs recording of an image by conveying a recording medium using multiple passes through a recording region of the recording head while the recording medium is repeatedly conveyed backward and forward to speed up recording and improve image quality. A recording head is controlled to provide that an amount of ink applied to a recording medium in a case where the recording medium is conveyed at a first speed is smaller than an amount of ink applied to the recording medium in a case where the recording medium is conveyed at a second speed higher than the first speed in both of a case where the recording medium is accelerated and a case where the recording medium is decelerated.

A recording device includes a recording unit configured to execute recording on a recording medium using a color material of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and a control unit configured to control recording executed by the recording unit, wherein the control unit causes the recording unit to record an edge region of black data included in image data using at least the color material of black, causes the recording unit to record an inner region on an inner side of the edge region of the black data using at least the color material of cyan, magenta, and yellow, and sets the amount of the color material of black per unit area of the edge region to be greater than the amount of the color material of black per unit area of the inner region.