A maintenance jig includes a protector and an opening. The protector is configured to be attached to a head that has a nozzle surface including a nozzle row to discharge liquid or a head holder that holds the head. The protector is configured to protect the nozzle row. The opening is adjacent to the protector in a lateral direction of the nozzle row intersecting a longitudinal direction of the nozzle row. A distance between an end of the protector in the longitudinal direction of the nozzle row and the nozzle surface is larger than a distance between a portion of the protector other than the end of the protector in the longitudinal direction and the nozzle surface when the maintenance jig is attached to the head or the head holder.

A computer-implemented method is provided for dosing ink in a digital printing device with multiple ink channels, when printing on a reflective substrate. A digital printing system configured with the method is also provided. Target color data of a target color to be printed on the reflective substrate is captured, including both color data and spectral reflectance data. The captured color data is processed with a printer model to output a preliminary dosing ratio for each ink channel. A digital opacity value for the target color is computed from the dosing ratio of each ink channel. A natural opacity value for the for the target color is computed from the captured spectral reflectance data, and a difference between the digital and natural opacity values is calculated. A predicted dosing ratio for each ink channel is obtained by interpolating the difference against an ink step of a diffuse ink component of the target color.

A coating device includes a head, a wiping mechanism, an arm, and a controller. The head includes a nozzle surface for discharging a coating material. The wiping mechanism wipes the nozzle surface. The arm holds the head. The controller controls movement of the head via the arm. The controller relatively moves the head with respect to the wiping mechanism to wipe the nozzle surface.

A plurality of test patterns are printed with different print conditions, the test patterns each being formed by two inks out of a plurality of inks and a reaction liquid and including a plurality of patterns among which ejection positions of the reaction liquid relative to ejection positions of the two inks are displaced by a predetermined amount at a time. The optical properties of the respective test patterns printed on the print medium are detected. A displacement amount of the relative ejection positions of the reaction liquid from the ejection positions of the plurality of inks is obtained based on the optical property of the test pattern in which an optical density difference between the patterns in the test pattern is greater than a predetermined value and which has an optical density of a lowest level among the optical properties of the test patterns detected.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes: an ink composition containing a resin in an amount of 6.0% by mass or more; a liquid discharge unit configured to discharge the ink composition from a nozzle formed in a nozzle surface; and a wiping unit configured to wipe the nozzle surface. The wiping unit includes a wiping member including protrusion-shape fibers. Each of the protrusion-shape fibers has a protruded portion in a cross-section orthogonal to a fiber axis thereof. The protruded portion is continuous in a direction along the fiber axis.

A textile printing system for digital printing of colored images onto typically colored fabrics, digitally using print nozzles or other digital means, the nozzles printing print pixels onto the fabrics. The system comprises a print file defining pixel colors for the individual printing pixels; and a deletion unit which deletes print pixels from the print file wherever a respective pixel color is within a threshold distance of the fabric color. The textile printer then prints the print pixels onto the fabric to form a colored image without printing any of the deleted pixels.

The techniques described herein relate generally to reconfigurable support pads for fabric image transfers. Specifically, according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, reconfigurable support pads are provided for fabric image transfers (e.g., silk screening, heat transfer, direct-to-garment printing, etc.). In particular, the techniques herein provide for various adjustable configurations of portions of the fabric substrate support, which may be changed for different thicknesses of garments, and more particularly, that allow for varied thicknesses found on the same garment. For example, by configuring the support in a first “flat” configuration, a plain tee shirt may lay flat, and then configuring the support in a second “two-tiered” configuration, with one portion lower (or higher) than the other, allows for a hoodie with a thicker pocket portion at the “belly” of the garment to also lay flat. Other configurations are also available, whether manually adjusted or else dynamically controlled (e.g., using actuators) based on the type of garment selected on an associated control system.

There is provided a printing apparatus including an obtaining unit configured to obtain print data in which in imposition image data in which one or more images are imposed in a print region, a code for identifying each image in the imposition image data is embedded; a determination unit configured to determine an ink color to be used to print the code by excluding an ink color satisfying a predetermined condition from candidates for the ink color to be used to print the code; and a print control unit configured to print the code based on the print data obtained by the obtaining unit using a plurality of nozzle arrays for the ink color determined by the determination unit.

A clear ink includes resin particles, water, and a compound represented by General Formula (1) below. The resin particles have a volume average particle diameter of 50 nm or less. A dried film of the clear ink has glass transition temperatures (Tg) at 50 degrees Celsius or higher and at lower than 0 degrees Celsius.

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In the General Formula (1), R.sup.1 represents an alkyl group having 1 or more but 4 or less carbon atoms.

A discharge apparatus includes an ink accommodating unit that accommodates a clear ink, a discharge head including a nozzle configured to discharge the clear ink to a print target, a heating unit configured to heat the print target, and a wiping member configured to wipe a nozzle-formed surface of the discharge head including the nozzle. The clear ink includes water and resin particles having a volume average particle diameter of 50 nm or less. A dried film of the clear ink has glass transition temperatures (Tg) at 50 degrees Celsius or higher and at lower than 0 degrees Celsius.