A system and method for ejecting one or more fluids from a digital dispense device. The method includes selecting a) fixed target areas and total fluid volumes for the target areas of the substrate; b) a predetermined droplet volume for the target areas; c) calculating a required number of droplets for the target areas; d) determining a maximum number of droplets per pixel based on the target areas; e) calculating a number of droplets per pass of an ejection head over the target areas; f) modifying one or more dimension of the target areas to create modified target areas; g) selecting and centering the modified spot size target areas in the target areas; and h) depositing fluids in the modified target areas while scanning the ejection head over the modified target areas.

The present disclosure relates to methods for printing absorbent article substrates. Printing systems herein may include a first printhead and a second printhead, wherein a substrate advances under the first and second printheads. The first printhead ejects ink onto the substrate to define a first printed zone, and the second printhead ejects ink onto the substrate to define a second printed zone. The first printed zone and the second printed zone together define a printed region. The first and second printed zones may be coterminous along respective edges to define a print stitch line extending in the machine direction. The substrate may then be manipulated proximate the print stitch line during a manufacturing process. Positioning the print stitch line proximate a region subject to manipulation may help hide and/or obscure the print stitch line from view. In turn, noticeable visible results of imprecise and/or inconsistent printing operations may be reduced.

A method of printing an image from a printhead module having a plurality of horizontal ink planes M supplied with a same ink. Each ink plane has a nozzle row and the nozzles rows of all ink planes have vertically aligned nozzles. The method includes the steps of: defining contiguous span groups along each nozzle row, each span group containing N nozzles; allocating dot data for each image line of the image to a predetermined number of nozzles P in each span group of each nozzle row; sending the dot data to the printhead module and firing nozzles sequentially from the ink planes to print the image line. Only one nozzle from each span group in a same nozzle row is fired simultaneously, N is an integer multiple of M, and P is N divided by M.

A printing apparatus comprises: a printing unit configured to print an image by applying, onto a printing medium, a first ink containing a fluorescent color material and a second ink containing not fluorescent color material but a resin; a decision unit configured to decide an amount of the second ink applied to a unit area on the printing medium based on an amount of the first ink applied to the unit area and luminescence information representing a luminescence intensity; and a control unit configured to control an application operation of the first ink and the second ink by the printing unit based on the amount of the first ink and the amount of the second ink applied to the unit area.

Techniques for reducing or eliminating image banding in an ink-jet image are provided. In an example, a method of operating a printer to reduce or eliminate image banding can include generating command profile for printing a given image, applying a filter to the command profile to provide a filtered profile, and dispensing ink from a printhead of the printer based on the filtered profile. In certain examples, the filter can randomize droplet sizes of ink dispensed while executing the printing to reduce or eliminate image banding.

An ejection apparatus includes an ejection head having an ejection port, a droplet detection unit, an acquisition unit, a control unit, and a decision unit. The droplet detection unit detects that a droplet ejected from the ejection port has reached a predetermined position. The acquisition unit acquires information regarding a velocity of movement of the detected droplet. The control unit controls the ejection head to eject the droplet from the ejection port. The decision unit decides a number of consecutive ejections of a plurality of droplets from the ejection head based on the acquired information regarding the velocities of each of the plurality of droplets ejected consecutively and detected by the droplet detection unit. If the acquisition unit acquires the information regarding velocities of detected droplets, the control unit controls the ejection head to consecutively eject the droplets from the ejection head based on the decided number of consecutive ejections.

An inspection apparatus capable of preventing lowering of position matching accuracy. Control points are positioned in a lattice form on a scanned image of a print product, for performing position matching between the scanned image and a reference image registered in advance. An approximate line of a column and an approximate line of a row intersecting the approximate line of the column are calculated based on two or more control points positioned in the same column and the same row as one control point. One control point determined to be corrected is corrected based on the respective approximate lines of the column and the row. The print product is inspected by comparing a position-matched scanned image generated based on the control points including position-corrected control points and position-updated control points, and the reference image.

A print medium having a calibration pattern printed thereon for generating alignment data for a printhead. The calibration pattern contains rows of spaced apart fiducials, each fiducial having a plurality of concentric shapes representing a Barker code.

A method is described in which a difference in height is determined between a current position and a calibration position of a printhead of a printer. An alignment value for the printhead is then determined based on the difference.

A method of printing an image from a printhead module having a plurality of horizontal nozzle rows. Each nozzle row has a main row portion and a corresponding dropped row portion vertically offset from the main row portion. The method includes the steps of: determining a predetermined delay for the dropped row portions based on the offset, a print speed and a print resolution; allocating dot data for image lines to respective nozzle rows based on the print speed and print resolution, sending first dot data for each main row portion and second dot data for each dropped row portion to the printhead module; and firing nozzles from the main row portions and dropped row portion in a predetermined sequence. Each dropped row portion is fired independently of its corresponding main row portion and delayed relative to its corresponding main row portion by the predetermined delay.