An inkjet printer includes an ink head, a carriage, and a first discharge controller. The ink head discharges photo-curable ink onto a recording medium. The ink head includes a colored ink nozzle group to discharge colored photo-curable ink, and a transparent ink nozzle group to discharge transparent photo-curable ink. The carriage is equipped with the ink head. The first discharge controller is configured or programmed to, when either one of the carriage and the recording medium makes a single movement, cause the colored ink nozzle group and the transparent ink nozzle group to discharge the colored photo-curable ink and the transparent photo-curable ink, respectively, onto a predetermined region so as to form a colored image and a texture image. The texture image includes the colored photo-curable ink and the transparent photo-curable ink that overlap with each other.

An inkjet printer includes a first light applicator disposed in a second scanning direction relative to a recording head. The first light applicator includes a first upstream light source group at a location corresponding to a location of the recording head in a movement direction of a recording medium, and a first downstream light source group on a downstream side in the movement direction of the recording medium relative to the recording head. The inkjet printer turns off the first upstream light source group and turns on the first downstream light source group during movement of a carriage in a first scanning direction and discharge of first ink from the recording head, and turns on the first upstream light source group and the first downstream light source group during movement of the carriage in the second scanning direction after discharge of the first ink.

A printing apparatus, including a discharging head for discharging ultraviolet-curable ink droplets, an energizer to supply energy to the ink droplets, a carriage with the discharging head and the energizer mounted thereon movable in a main scanning direction, and a controller, is provided. The controller forms a dots-linked portion having a plurality of the ink droplets landed on the printable medium being linked with one another and cured in a shape elongated in the main scanning direction. The controller forms both a dividing dot and a divided-dots linking portion or the divided-dots linking portion alone. The dividing dot is formed of a single one of the ink droplets cured independently at a position to one of adjoin and overlap the dots-linked portion in the main scanning direction. The divided-dots linking portion has a plurality of the ink droplets being linked and cured in a shape elongated in a sub-scanning direction.

A method for forming a conductive fine pattern according to an embodiment forms a conductive fine pattern on a substrate having identical surface energy by using inkjet printing for printing ink along a path. The method includes a droplet ejection process of simultaneously performing, discharging photocurable ink at the front side of the path, discharging volatile ink containing minute metal particles at the rear side of the path, and applying light energy to the discharged photocurable ink. The light energy is configured to have a light intensity such that: the photocurable ink is semi-cured and ejected in a gel state on the substrate, and thus forms a boundary with liquid volatile ink ejected on the substrate; and the photocurable ink is completely cured after the ejection of both the photocurable ink and the volatile ink is completed.

A drying apparatus which dries a medium on which an image is formed with ink while conveying the medium includes a conveyance part, a heating part, a measurement part and a controller. The conveyance part conveys the medium in a predetermined conveyance direction. The heating part supplies energy to the image on the sheet conveyed in the conveyance part and dries the image. The measurement part measures a value accompanied with moisture contained in the medium. The controller estimates an amount of moisture contained in the medium based on the value measured by the measurement part, and controls at least one of the conveyance part and the heating part so as to change an amount of the energy supplied to the image based on the estimated amount of moisture.

A printer control unit controls a fan, based on an acquired reference temperature and an output of a sensor, to cause a temperature of a platen drum or a temperature of a sheet supported by the platen drum to be the reference temperature. Specifically, at step S100, the printer control unit acquires a type of the printing medium to be used for printing, acquires the reference temperature at step S110, and at step S150, controls an operating state of the fan, based on the temperature of the platen drum output by the sensor, such that the temperature of the platen drum becomes the reference temperature acquired at step S110. As a result, a temperature increase of the platen drum becomes substantially saturated at the targeted reference temperature.

An information processing device controlling a printing device is provided. The printing device includes an ejection unit ejecting a paint that is cured by ultraviolet light, and an irradiation unit irradiating the paint ejected on a print medium with ultraviolet light. The information processing device includes: an acquisition unit acquiring characteristic information of the paint, a print condition in printing by the printing device, and image data representing an image printed by the printing device; and a determination unit determining whether execution of follow-up irradiation, which is additional ultraviolet irradiation, is needed or not, after the printing of the image involving ultraviolet irradiation by the irradiation unit, based on the characteristic information, the print condition, and the image data.

A method for forming a resist fine pattern uses inkjet printing for printing an ink along a path to form a resist fine pattern on a substrate having the same surface energy. The method includes an ejecting step of simultaneously discharging a photocurable resist ink and a partition-forming ink that are spaced from each other on the front side and the rear side of the path and applying the light energy to the discharged photocurable resist ink. The intensity of light is set so that, as the photocurable resist ink is semi-cured and is ejected on the substrate in a gelatinous state, the ink forms a boundary that is vertical with respect to the partition-forming ink ejected on the substrate and the spreading of the photocurable resist ink is prevented, and the photocurable resist ink is cured after both the photocurable resist ink and the partition-forming ink are completely ejected.

Thermal transformative variable gloss control produces selectively variable levels of gloss finish on thermoformed materials. In embodiments, the power level of LED curing lamps associated with an ink jet printer that is using thermoforming inks for printing is selectively varied depending upon a desired level of gloss in a finished substrate. Heat treating of the substrate during thermoforming or in an oven develops the glossy finish on the substrate in relation to the level of power applied to the printer LED curing lamps during printing.

Provided is a light source device in which the housing is not full of heat, and the risk of inhaling dust in the housing or the risk of reduction of life of the fan device becomes reduced. In an aspect, a light source device according to the present disclosure includes a light source; a light source control unit for controlling turning on/off and a quantity of light of the light source; a cooling fan for cooling the light source; and a fan control unit for controlling a number of revolutions of the cooling fan, wherein the fan control unit is configured to: control the number of revolutions of the cooling fan to become a first number of revolutions depending on the quantity of light of the light source when the light source is turned on, and control the number of revolutions of the cooling fan to become a second number of revolutions lower than the first number of revolutions by waiting for a predetermined waiting time when the light source is turned off.