Provided are a defect inspection device, a defect inspection method, and a program, and a printing device and a method of manufacturing a printed matter, in which a defect of a printed matter is inspected by performing registration between reference data and imaging data of the printed matter printed on the basis of the reference data with high accuracy at high speed. The reference data and the imaging data of the printed matter printed on the basis of the reference data by a single-pass type printing device that includes an inkjet head having a plurality of nozzles disposed in a nozzle direction are acquired, registration between the imaging data and the reference data in the nozzle direction is performed by using nozzle mapping information indicating a correspondence relationship between positions of the plurality of nozzles and pixel positions of the imaging data in the nozzle direction, and a defect of the printed matter is inspected in response to an input of the imaging data and the reference data that have been subjected to registration.

A recording apparatus includes a recording head that has a plurality of nozzles that eject liquid onto a medium and a control section that controls an ejection of liquid by the recording head, wherein the control section controls the recording head to record a plurality of first patterns having mutually different densities on the medium in a intersecting direction that intersects a nozzle alignment direction in which the nozzles are arranged, and to record a plurality of second patterns for identifying positions of the nozzles in the nozzle alignment direction on the medium in the intersecting direction such that each of the plurality of first patterns is adjacent to the second patterns on at least one of one end side and the other end side in the intersecting direction.

A method of operating a printer distributes inkjet operations from frequently used inkjets to lesser used inkjets. The redistribution of the inkjet operations helps reduce the number of inkjets exhibiting cross-process direction error so printhead maintenance operations, such as purging, occur less frequently.

The present invention relates to an ink-jet print heads protecting system in a digital printing machine, wherein the module comprises a chassis (1), rollers (2), and a plurality of digital printing units (10), each with a bridge (11) with guides (12) and a sliding carriage (13) with ink-jet print heads (14), one part of each guide overlapping the band and another part projecting beyond the band path, the carriage being movable between the printing and maintenance positions; and in that each bridge is attached to the chassis by of a position adjustment device (20) and an articulation (25) that are spaced apart or by two position adjustment devices (20) that are spaced apart.

A method for printing a plurality of scan lines with one or more inkjet heads includes receiving at least one scanline; creating, from pixels of said at least one scanline, a plurality of bundles of a predetermined size comprising first bundles and consecutive bundles, said first and consecutive bundles comprising pixels for which nozzles of the one or more inkjet heads have to be fired within a first time period and within a consecutive time period, respectively; and storing said plurality of bundles in a first memory. The method includes transferring said plurality of bundles from first memory to second memory; and repeating until all said pixels are available in the second memory as the first bundles. Nozzles of the one or more inkjet heads are fired in accordance with the first bundles within the first time period and steps repeated for consecutive bundles and associated respective consecutive time periods.

Examples relate to a method to print a print job. The method comprise comparing an operational parameter of the print job with a reference operational parameter and determining to perform a maintenance task during the print job based on at least a result of comparing the operational parameter with the reference operational parameter. If the maintenance task is to be performed, the method further comprises determining a safety area on a printable medium and performing a maintenance task on a printable medium.

An apparatus corrects a measurement value obtained by measuring a first image formed using a recording element that ejects ink, to identify a density characteristic of the recording element. The apparatus includes a first acquisition unit configured to acquire a second image obtained by measuring the first image, an identification unit configured to identify a boundary between regions in the second image, each of the regions corresponding to one of a plurality of head modules including the recording element, and a first correction unit configured to correct a measurement value of the second image based on the identified boundary.

A technique capable of suppressing a color shift caused by a variation in ejection characteristics among nozzles is to be provided. A generating unit configured to generate print data which is configured with a printing pixel, which represents that a printing agent is applied, or a non-printing pixel, which represents that a printing agent is not applied, generates the print data as follows: (i) the first quantization data is obtained by quantizing the first image data; and (ii) by applying a correction value based on the ejection characteristics related to a plurality of printing elements for applying a printing agent, a value representing that a printing agent is applied a plurality of times is set for at least one target printing pixel in the first quantization data.

Examples include estimation of pen to paper spacing (PPS). Examples include an alignment pattern printed on a medium at a target speed, an optical scan procedure performed on the printed alignment pattern to determine values of cross-media misalignment for first and second portions of the alignment pattern, determination of a dynamic swath height error (DSHE) effect value based on the values of cross-media misalignment, and estimation of an amount of PPS based on the determined DSHE effect value and the target print speed.

In an example implementation, a method of dual and single drop weight printing includes operating a printing system in a hybrid drop weight print mode to enable ejecting black ink from high drop weight nozzles and low drop weight nozzles, and ejecting color ink from high drop weight nozzles but not from low drop weight nozzles.