Disclosed is an apparatus for detecting liquid discharge characteristics according to an embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus including: a liquid supply unit supplying a liquid; a liquid guide unit including a flow path through which the liquid supplied from the liquid supply unit passes and a nozzle mounting portion communicating with the flow path and on which the nozzle is mounted and guiding the liquid supplied from the liquid supply unit to the nozzle mounted on the nozzle mounting portion; a lighting unit projecting light onto the liquid passing through the flow path inside the liquid guide unit; and a camera obtaining an image of the liquid discharged from the nozzle by being arranged toward the nozzle.

A number of methods may be utilized to correct for the first drop dissimilarity in drop-on-demand inkjet devices. Various collection processes, mass calculations and timing manipulation may be utilized to correct the first drop dissimilarity problem.

An image processing apparatus configured to generate, based on image data corresponding to a printing image, print data for causing a printer to execute printing includes an input unit (input device, display device) configured to receive, for each of the first ink and the second ink, an ink discharge correction volume for correcting an ink volume discharged from predetermined nozzles among a plurality of first nozzles and a plurality of second nozzles, and a print data generating unit (printer driver) configured to generate the print data based on the image data and the ink discharge correction volume input.

A system is disclosed. The system at least one physical memory device to store ink estimation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device, to execute the ink estimation logic to receive one or more gray level histograms, receive one or more halftone designs and generate estimated ink usage data for each of one or more color planes based on the gray level histograms and the halftone designs, wherein each gray level histogram corresponds to one of the one or more color planes, and each halftone design corresponds to one of the one or more color planes.

A jetting device configured to jet one or more droplets of a viscous medium through a nozzle may include an acoustic transducer configured to emit an acoustic signal that transfers acoustic waves into at least a portion of the viscous medium located in a viscous medium conduit a viscous medium conduit configured to direct a flow of the viscous medium to an outlet of the nozzle. The acoustic signal may be an ultrasonic signal. The acoustic signal may adjust one or more rheological properties of the viscous medium, based on acoustic actuation. The acoustic transducer may be implemented by an actuator of the device that is configured to move through an eject chamber to cause viscous medium to be jetted through the outlet of the nozzle as one or more droplets.

A detecting device is configured to detect a discharge state of droplets from a discharging head configured to discharge droplets onto a medium. A detecting device includes an irradiation unit configured to irradiate the medium on which a predetermined pattern is recorded with the droplets with irradiation light, and to scan the medium with the irradiation light in a scanning direction, a light-receiving unit configured to receive reflected light which is the irradiation light reflected by the medium, and to output a signal indicating intensity of the reflected light, and a control unit configured to perform determination process for determining a discharge state of the droplets onto the medium by using intensity change of the reflected light in scanning the predetermined pattern in the scanning direction.

An inkjet printing system with a droplet measurement apparatus is described herein. The droplet measurement apparatus has a light source with a collimating optical system, an imaging device disposed along an optical path of the collimating optical system, and a droplet illumination zone in the optical path of the collimating optical system, the droplet illumination zone having a varying droplet illumination location, wherein the light source, the imaging device, or both are adjustable to place a focal plane of the imaging device at the droplet illumination location. The droplet measurement apparatus is structured to accommodate at least a portion of a dispenser of the printing system within the droplet illumination zone.

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting head having N nozzle line groups (N is an integer equal to or larger than 3) arranged in a first direction, a main scanning section configured to move the liquid ejecting head in a second direction which intersects with the first direction for scanning, a selection section configured to select a set of use nozzle lines to be used for formation of dots on the medium from among the N nozzle line groups, and an ejection controller configured to form the dots by causing the nozzles included in the set of use nozzle lines selected by the selection section to eject the liquid. The selection section selects M of the N nozzle line groups (2M<N) which are consecutively adjacent to each other in the first direction as the set of use nozzle lines.

The image processing apparatus of the present invention includes: an image data acquisition unit configured to acquire image data; a generation unit configured to generate an ejection pattern of ink droplets from the image data, which are ejected for forming dots from a plurality of nozzles of an image forming apparatus; a characteristic acquisition unit configured to acquire an ejection characteristic of ink droplets of the image forming apparatus; and a pattern change processing unit configured to change the ejection pattern based on the ejection characteristic and the ejection pattern, and the pattern change processing unit repeatedly performs, in a case where a gap occurs between dots that should be formed so as to contact each other by the image forming apparatus, the ejection pattern change until the gap is eliminated.

Example implementations relate to a method to manage printhead operational life; the method comprising firing at least one nozzle of a printhead according to an associated firing parameter to produce a respective drop of print liquid, measuring a parameter associated with the drop of print liquid, and adjusting the firing parameter in response to the measuring to reduce the measured parameter associated with the drop of print liquid on a subsequent firing while maintaining the firing parameter at or above a predetermined parameter limit to maintain print image quality.