A printing apparatus has first nozzles configured to eject ink to form a first base layer on a printing medium, second nozzles configured to eject ink to form a second base layer on the printing medium, and a controller. The controller is configured to perform a first printing to form the first base layer with the first nozzles based on first image data, the first image data representing a first dot density per one pass, a second printing to form the second base layer with the second nozzles based on second image data, the second image data representing a second dot density per one pass, the second dot density being lower than the first dot density, and increasing an ink amount when the second printing is performed such that an ink amount per dot is increased compared to a case where the first printing is performed.

The liquid ejection head has a structure in which three or more head modules including a plurality of ejection elements are arranged along a single direction, and the liquid ejection head includes a first head module, a second head module and a third head module which are arranged in ascending order of slope of ejection volume distribution in the single direction or are arranged in descending order of the slope of the ejection volume distribution in the single direction, the slope of the ejection volume distribution in the single direction being evaluated by subtracting an ejection volume at one end part in the single direction from an ejection volume at the other end part in the single direction.

A method for printing an ink jet marking on a non-wetting surface for liquid ink, includes forming at least a first drop of solidified ink on the surface, by ejecting, by means of a printhead, a first drop of liquid ink at a first given ejection velocity and with a first given volume, and depositing, on at least one portion of said first drop of solidified ink, at least a second drop of ink having a second volume VOL2, by ejecting, by means of a printhead, a second drop of liquid ink at an ejection velocity.

White-balance is improved when printing on colored media, while minimizing the time and use of costly materials required by present approaches. In an embodiment, the typical solid white fill or background layer is altered by including in the white layer one or more of the other colors already available in the printer to shade this layer. Thus, a small amount of cyan, for example, helps balance a pink-ish (red) media; yellow is used for blue media; and magenta is used for green media; as well as combinations thereof. A combination of transparent process inks and opaque white helps to maintain brightness (luminosity).

In an image processing apparatus, a controller generates print data using target image data. The print data represents dot formation states classified for respective pixels. Each dot formation state is classified into a one of a plurality of dot types. The controller determines a dot type from a plurality of dot types including a first type dot and second type dot. The first type dot is formed by a first process for supplying a pressure applying section with a specific signal. The second type dot is formed by a second process that is not for supplying the pressure applying section with the specific signal. The first type dot is to be formed in an edge printing area. The first type dot is not to be formed but the second type dot is to be formed in an interior printing area.

An image forming apparatus includes a carriage configured to scan with an ejection head for ejecting ink droplets that harden when exposed to active energy line onto a recording medium to form an image and an emitter unit for emitting the active energy line mounted thereon, and an image forming controller configured to control ejection of the ink droplets from the ejection head and scan of the carriage. The image forming controller forms an ink droplet film of an uppermost layer of an image made of multiple layers of ink droplet films with finer image quality than that of an ink droplet film of each lower layer other than the uppermost layer, and forms the ink droplet film of the each lower layer other than the uppermost layer with coarser image quality and in a shorter length of time than a length of time taken to form the uppermost layer.

A droplet ejection method includes: changing the drive condition in at least one of multiple ejections so as to correct the difference between a predetermined liquid amount and the total ejection amount of the liquid ejected in the form of a droplet by driving the nozzle under a preset drive condition; and driving at least one of the nozzles under the new drive condition to redetermine the total ejection amount of liquid of when performing multiple ejections.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes a liquid discharge head and circuitry. The liquid discharge head discharges liquid droplets. The circuitry causes the liquid discharge head to selectively discharge two or more types of liquid droplets having a first droplet having a first discharge volume and a second droplet having a second discharge volume larger than the first discharge volume to form an image of dots of the first droplet and the second droplet on a medium with gradations according to a gradation value of the image on a portion of the medium. Further, the circuitry monotonically decreases a number of white pixels without discharging the liquid droplets on the medium with an increase in the gradation value.

A printing apparatus includes a printing head having nozzles configured to eject droplets, a carriage having the printing head mounted thereon, a control unit configured to control the ejection of the droplets from the nozzles, a detection unit configured to detect the droplets ejected from the nozzles, a determination unit configured to determine an ejection state of the nozzles based on the detection result obtained by the detection unit, a reception unit configured to receive a user input to select a mode, and a setting unit configured to set the mode based on the user input, wherein the control unit causes the droplets to be ejected from the nozzles while moving the carriage relative to the detection unit, and the determination unit determines the ejection state of the nozzles based on the detection result of the droplets ejected while moving the carriage relative to the detection unit.

The liquid ejection head has a structure in which three or more head modules including a plurality of ejection elements are arranged along a single direction, and the liquid ejection head includes a first head module, a second head module and a third head module which are arranged in ascending order of slope of ejection volume distribution in the single direction or are arranged in descending order of the slope of the ejection volume distribution in the single direction, the slope of the ejection volume distribution in the single direction being evaluated by subtracting an ejection volume at one end part in the single direction from an ejection volume at the other end part in the single direction.