A scanner include a scan section configured to intermittently move and perform an intermittent scan, a stop-state analyzing section configured to compare a stop-time image obtained by a scan of an identification pattern on a medium in a stop position where the movement of the scan section temporarily stops and scan results before and after the stop and determine, based on a comparison result, whether the medium moved, and a scan control section configured to cause the scan section to suspend the temporarily-stopped intermittent scan when the medium moved and cause the scan section to continue the temporarily-stopped intermittent scan when the medium did not move.

A method applying a bead of a coating product to a surface by a print head equipped with nozzles, each centered on a central axis, the coating product application moves the print head and the surface relative to each other, by moving the print head along a fixed trajectory relative to the surface without rotating the print head about an axis parallel to the central axes of the nozzles. The method includes selecting certain nozzles for a point of the trajectory based on the trajectory direction at this point, and activating the selected nozzles at this point. The selected nozzles are arranged in a line, or form part of a nozzle group delimited by a line, whose regression line coincides with a line as close as possible to a line perpendicular to the trajectory direction from among lines that can be defined with nozzles of the print head.

A printer includes: a printing section; a transport belt that transports a print medium; a camera that detects both end portions in an intersecting direction that intersects a transport direction of the print medium among end portions of the print medium placed on the transport belt; and a control section that causes the printing section to execute printing based on print data while one end portion of the both end portions detected by the camera is set as a print start position and a distance from the one end portion to the other end portion is set as a width of the print medium.

A method of printing an image from a printhead module having a plurality of horizontal nozzle rows. The method includes the steps of: allocating first dot data for an image line of the image to nozzles in a main row portion of a first nozzle row; allocating second dot data for the image line to nozzles in a dropped row portion of the first nozzle row; sending the first and second dot data to the printhead module and firing respective droplets. Some bits of the first dot data correspond to pixels of the image line aligned with the dropped row portion, and some bits of the second dot data correspond to pixels of the image line aligned with the main row portion.

A method is described in which a sequence of print orders is determined. The sequence is to be associated to print elements to be generated by ejecting printing material from nozzles. The method comprises controlling the generation of the print elements by ejecting printing material from the nozzles according to the determined sequence.

A controller determines whether a first direction is perpendicular to an extending direction of a straight line portion in a boundary between recorded and non-recorded regions; determines whether a recording resolution in the first direction is lower than an image resolution; in response to determining that the first direction is perpendicular to the extending direction and that the recording resolution is lower than the image resolution, determines whether at least part of a predicted landing region is located outside a reference line; and in response to determining that the at least part of the predicted landing region is located outside the reference line, controls a head and a carriage to adjust ejection timing of an ink droplet forming the edge of the straight line portion such that a protruding area of an actual landing region of the ink droplet is smaller than a protruding area of the predicted landing region.

An image forming apparatus includes a head, processing circuitry, and a reader. The head includes a first nozzle, a second nozzle, and a third nozzle at a position different from the first nozzle in a conveyance direction of a recording medium. The circuitry controls relative movement of the medium and the head along a main scanning direction and relative movement of a conveyance amount between the medium and the head along the conveyance direction. The circuitry controls the head to form a first test pattern with color ink discharged from the first nozzle, form a second test pattern with color ink discharged from the third nozzle, and form a mask image overlapping on or under the first pattern and overlapping on or under the second pattern with base ink discharged from the second nozzle. The reader reads positions of the first pattern and the second pattern on the medium.

A printed matter creating device includes a controller configured to: acquire print data; form a first print on a printing medium while conveying the printing medium, the first print being based on first ON dots in the acquired print data; interrupt the conveyance of the printing medium after forming the first print; cut the printing medium after interrupting the conveyance; and form a second print on the printing medium while conveying the printing medium after cutting the printing medium, the second print being based on second ON dots in the acquired print data. The print data includes a specific print data corresponding to a connecting part connecting the first print and the second print. Based on the acquired print data, the controller adjusts at least one of: aspects of the first ON dots in the specific print data; and aspects of the second ON dots in the specific print data.

A method of generating alignment data for a printhead. The method includes the steps of: printing a calibration pattern using the printhead, the calibration pattern including rows of spaced apart fiducials, each fiducial having a plurality of concentric shapes representing a code sequence; imaging the fiducials at a first resolution to generate imaged fiducials; cross-correlating a template fiducial with the imaged fiducials at a plurality of different displacement s relative to each imaged fiducial, the template fiducial having a configuration matching the imaged fiducials; determining a two-dimensional set of cross-correlation values for each imaged fiducial, each set of cross-correlation values indicating a center of a respective fiducial; and generating alignment data for the printhead using the sets of cross-correlation values.

A head driving device includes a recording head, an input-and-output interface, and circuitry. The recording head includes a plurality of nozzles and a plurality of pressure generating elements corresponding to the plurality of nozzles. The input-and-output interface is configured to acquire correction information generated based on a chart image of a specific pattern for correcting a deviation amount of a landing position of each of the plurality of nozzles. The circuitry is configured to set the correction information acquired by the input-and-output interface and perform correction processing for correcting the deviation amount of the landing position on a driver for each of the plurality of nozzles of the recording head, in accordance with the correction information.