In a printing apparatus, a carriage is reciprocally movable in first and second directions. A control device is configured to perform executing one of first and second printing operations in accordance with an operation mode. The first printing operation prints a first image over a first range in a third direction crossing the first and second directions by ejecting ink from both first and second heads during one movement of the carriage in the first and second directions. The second printing operation prints a second image over a second range narrower than the first range in the third direction by ejecting ink from both the first and second heads during the one movement of the carriage. Ink ejection contribution during the one movement of the carriage is shared by the first and second heads at a prescribed contribution ratio in the second printing operation.

A main TP is formed by N pattern element groups formed of a plurality of pattern elements disposed in cycles of N in a first direction, and disposed in positions shifted with respect to each other in a second direction intersecting the first direction. A first sub TP is configured by pattern elements printed by the nozzles used to print the pattern elements of the pattern element group positioned furthest away from the one region, in the second direction, among the N pattern element groups, and a second sub TP is configured by pattern elements printed by the nozzles used to print the pattern elements of the pattern element group positioned furthest away from the other region, in the second direction, among the N pattern element groups.

A printing apparatus includes a transport unit, a printing head, and a control unit that prints, on a printing medium, a test pattern for inspecting a state of ink discharge by a nozzles. The test pattern includes a first pattern element group in which a plurality of pattern elements to be printed by the nozzles are arranged in the transport direction, and a second pattern element group in which a plurality of pattern elements to be printed by the nozzles are arranged in the transport direction. After the control unit causes the transport unit to transport, by a distance equal to or greater than a nozzle pitch, the printing medium printed with the first pattern element group by causing the nozzles to discharge the ink, the control unit prints the second pattern element group on the printing medium by causing the nozzles used to print the first pattern element group to discharge the ink.

A method of operating a printing system includes identifying groups of nozzles of a plurality of nozzles of a printhead device. The method also includes ejecting fluid drops by the printhead device from nozzles thereof and along corresponding firing paths. The method also includes controlling movement of a detector carriage including a plurality of drop detectors of a drop detector array with respect to the printhead device by a control module to align each one of the drop detectors with the respective firing paths corresponding to the respective nozzles at a predetermined time. The method also includes sensing the firing paths corresponding to the nozzles to detect a presence of the fluid drops by the drop detectors such that each one of the drop detectors senses at a same time a respective firing path corresponding to a respective nozzle for a plurality of groups of nozzles.

A control method for a printing apparatus includes: an image defect detecting step of detecting an ejection curve amount of a nozzle in an inkjet head and an image defect from a recordable medium on a surface of which an image is recorded by an image recording part provided with the inkjet head having a plurality of nozzles, and a stamp step of attaching a stamp indicating presence of the image defect on the recordable medium by a stamping device in a case where the image defect is detected, the stamp step differentiating an attachment form of the stamp by the stamping device in accordance with a magnitude of the ejection curve amount of the nozzle.

A method is disclosed. The method includes analyzing an image of a first flushing pattern applied on a medium during production of a print job to detect presence of one or more defective ink jet nozzles and adjusting to a second flushing pattern during the production of the print job upon detecting the presence of one or more defective print head nozzles.

Provided is an image forming apparatus and a method, an abnormal nozzle detection method, and a printed matter manufacturing method that can suppress the consumption of an extra medium and can efficiently specify an abnormal nozzle. The image forming apparatus (10) includes a print head (16) that has a plurality of nozzles, an association unit (40) that associates the nozzle with a partial region in a user image, a first correction unit that performs a first correction assuming that the associated nozzle is abnormal in at least one of the partial regions, a streak detection unit (44) that detects streak information from a print result of the user image including the partial region subjected to the first correction, and a nozzle state estimation unit (46) that estimates a state of the nozzle on the basis of the streak information of two or more partial regions in a single user image.

According to one embodiment, a liquid dispensing apparatus includes a mounting unit configured to hold a liquid discharging apparatus that discharges liquid from nozzles simultaneously by an operation of an actuator. An inspection media placement region is provided on which an inspection medium can be placed to receive the liquid discharged from the liquid discharging apparatus. A controller is configured to control the actuator to vary a volume of the liquid discharged from each nozzle for a nozzle inspection operation. The volume is varied according to a predetermined distance between adjacent nozzles that simultaneously discharge liquid and a predetermined contact angle for a droplet of the liquid when on the inspection medium.

In a printing apparatus including a printhead and a print control unit, wherein the printhead includes two nozzle arrays, each arranged in a first direction and including nozzles arranged along a second direction, the print control unit performs a first operation of expanding print data onto a memory, a second operation of selecting, for each nozzle array, some of the nozzles as non-driving nozzles and the remaining nozzles as driving nozzles, and a third operation of distributing the expanded print data to the two nozzle arrays such that dots corresponding to the non-driving nozzles of one nozzle array are printed by the driving nozzles of the other nozzle array.

A method compensates a failing nozzle of a print head of an inkjet printer. The inkjet printer includes at least one print head, the at least one print head including a plurality of nozzles. A receiving material is moved relatively to the at least one print head. The method includes ejecting droplets of marking material from the plurality of nozzles onto the receiving material forming dots of an image, scanning the printed dots, analyzing the scanned dots for detecting whether a nozzle is failing, determining a group of nozzles, which group of nozzles most likely contains the nozzle that is failing, selecting one nozzle of the group of nozzles, in an image part ejecting compensating droplets of marking material in accordance with a compensation scheme selected as if the one nozzle is failing, scanning the image part, repeating the steps of ejecting and scanning for each other nozzle in the group of nozzles, analyzing each image part, selecting from the image parts a deviating image part, the deviating image part having a highest or lowest print quality of all image parts, selecting a compensation scheme based on the deviating image part, and proceeding with printing, including ejecting compensating droplets in accordance with the selected compensation scheme. An inkjet printer is configured to execute the method.