An inkjet recording apparatus includes memory, a processor, an image forming section, and a bending mechanism. The memory stores therein bending information in which a plurality of bending amounts corresponding to respective ejection amounts of an ink ejected from the image forming section are defined. The processor sets a bending amount of a sheet to be conveyed. The bending mechanism includes a roller and a belt that hold the sheet therebetween, and bends the sheet by moving a position of a center of the roller toward the belt based on the set bending amount. The processor calculates for each of areas of the sheet an amount of the ink ejected to the area, and sets the bending amount of the sheet based on the bending amounts corresponding to the calculated amounts of the ink ejected to the respective areas in the bending information.

A liquid ejection apparatus includes: an ejection head; a head scanning mechanism; a controller; and a storage, wherein the controller is configured to: perform, in a case where viscosity of the liquid satisfies a first condition, a first printing process of: discarding the liquid at a discard position and then printing a partial image; perform, in a case where viscosity of the liquid does not satisfy the first condition, the controller performs a second printing process of: printing the partial image on the recording medium, without discarding the liquid; perform, a division process of dividing the image data corresponding to at least first one pass of the image data into a first division data and a second division data; and, in the second printing process, the controller controls to eject the liquid based on the first division data and eject the liquid based on the second division data.

An image forming apparatus includes a head, a first controller, and a second controller. When calculating an amount of ink used, the first controller obtains an estimated number of discharges, which is the number of dots of the ink to be discharged, on a basis of print image data which is image data used for printing, without using information on an actual number of discharges of the ink at the head. The first controller obtains a print usage on a basis of a value obtained by multiplying the obtained estimated number of discharges by a discharged droplet amount per ink discharge. The print usage is the amount of the ink used, discharged onto a paper for printing each page of a print job.

The droplet velocities of the nozzles of different groups of nozzles of a print head of an inkjet printing device are determined for different line clock rates. An optimized operating line clock rate is then determined for the operation of the printing device, where the deviation between the droplet velocities of the nozzles of the different groups is reduced (e.g. minimized). The droplet positioning along the transport direction of a recording medium may be advantageously homogenized via the convergence of the droplet velocities.

An ejection apparatus includes: a first ejection unit configured to eject droplets on a recording medium conveyed in a conveyance direction to form an image for detection; a first detection unit disposed downstream of the first ejection unit and configured to detect the image for detection; a second ejection unit disposed downstream of the detection unit and configured to eject droplets on the recording medium; and a control unit configured to: predict a first elongation amount of the recording medium based on a first difference between a first set time period and a first detection time period from a reference time point to a first detection time point when the image for detection is detected by the first detection unit; and perform delay control on the second ejection unit for delaying an ejection timing of the second ejection unit based on the predicted elongation amount.

A liquid droplet measurement method and a liquid droplet measurement device with which the luminance contrast can be improved without making changes in, for example, the numerical aperture of a lens when the quantity of reflected light from the surface of the measurement target liquid droplet alone cannot provide a sufficient luminance contrast. A method and an apparatus for manufacturing a device are also provided. The liquid droplet measurement device includes: a measurement table having a surface with a recess and for holding a translucent sample substrate; an imaging section that applies light onto the sample substrate having formed thereon a liquid droplet, and measures quantities of reflected light from the sample substrate and the liquid droplet; and a measurement control unit that determines a volume or a surface shape of the liquid droplet using luminance information of the reflected light quantities measured by the imaging section.

A controller for an inkjet printing device is configured to predict a remaining time period until a failure of the nozzle on the basis of a time curve of offset measurement values with regard to the offset of the ink droplets ejected by said nozzle. A compensation measure may be introduced promptly, before the actual failure of the nozzle on the basis of the prediction in order to have the effect that the compensation measure takes effect at latest at the point in time of the failure of the nozzle, and thus an interruption of the print quality may be prevented.

In a method and a device for synchronizing a first printing device with a second component (e.g. second printing device), based on a property of a print image printed by the first printing device, which the property is detected by an optical sensor, a first print image is printed and at least one part of the first print image is detected using the optical sensor to generate a corresponding sensor signal. A virtual sensor signal is determined based on first print data and a known position of the optical sensor. The virtual sensor signal is compared with a curve of the sensor signal and a position signal is generated based on the result of the comparison. A second component is started depending on the position signal.

In a printer configured to perform two-sided recording, a control unit generates a first correspondence relationship that associates a reference pattern with raster data of a first image in a medium transport direction, and a second correspondence relationship that associates the reference pattern with raster data of a second image in the medium transport direction, and, when the second image is recorded on a second surface, performs determination processing for determining whether the reference pattern detected by a detection unit and the raster data of the second image, which a recording unit records when the reference pattern is detected, match the second correspondence relationship.

A recording apparatus includes a recording head, a carrying part, a carriage and a detector that optically detects an image recorded on a recording medium, and a controller that obtains a correction value of recording positions of dots from a test pattern, and corrects the recording positions of the dots based on the correction value. The test pattern includes an adjustment pattern and a reference pattern, the adjustment pattern includes multiple overlapping patterns that are each formed by overlapping two basic patterns, the reference pattern is formed of predetermined patterns that each correspond to the multiple overlapping patterns, the correction value of recording positions of dots, which is obtained by the controller, is calculated based on adjustment detection results respectively obtained by detecting the multiple overlapping patterns and a reference detection result obtained by detecting the predetermined pattern forming the reference pattern, and the controller corrects the recording positions of dots based on the correction value.