White-balance is improved when printing on colored media, while minimizing the time and use of costly materials required by present approaches. In an embodiment, the typical solid white fill or background layer is altered by including in the white layer one or more of the other colors already available in the printer to shade this layer. Thus, a small amount of cyan, for example, helps balance a pink-ish (red) media; yellow is used for blue media; and magenta is used for green media; as well as combinations thereof. A combination of transparent process inks and opaque white helps to maintain brightness (luminosity).

The disclosed embodiments include a method to compensate for defective printer nozzles. The method can include detecting a defective printer nozzle and initiating a print job including image data of the defective printer nozzle for a pixel location of an image. The image is to be printed in accordance with a print mask that maps printer nozzles to pixel locations of the image. The method can include modifying the image to print the image data in a neighboring pixel location relative to the pixel location of the image and printing the modified image.

A recording apparatus includes a recording head configured to perform recording on a recording medium being conveyed in a conveyance direction, a carriage in which the recording head is mounted, the carriage being configured to perform scanning in a scanning direction that intersects the conveyance direction, and a guide member including a flat surface configured to guide the carriage in the scanning direction. The carriage includes a sliding part configured to slide in contact with the guide member, an impregnated member impregnated with lubricant on at least one side of the sliding part in the scanning direction, and a pressure member configured to press the impregnated member to the guide member side from a surface on a side opposite to the guide member with respect to the impregnated member.

A printing apparatus prints an image by applying ink to a print surface of an inclined print medium using a print head. A control apparatus for the printing apparatus acquires information on an inclination of the print surface. Based on the information, printing is controlled according to a print condition corresponding to a magnitude of the inclination of the print surface.

A method of printing an image using a printing system including at least first and second overlapping printhead segments, the method includes the steps of: feeding media past the printhead segments along a media feed direction; determining an extent of wander of the media in a direction perpendicular to the media feed direction; selecting a stitching method based on the determined extent of wander; and printing the image using the first and second printhead segments. The printing step includes stitching the first and second printhead segments using the selected stitching method.

Example techniques for controlling a movement of a print carriage are described. In an example, in response to a determination that a movement of the print carriage in a printing device may be an unstable movement, a first movement parameter value may be associated with the movement of the print carriage, to prevent the unstable movement.

In an image processing apparatus, a processor sets a target printing method for printing a target image to one of a bidirectional printing method and a unidirectional printing method. In a case where the bidirectional printing method is set as the target printing method: the processor executes both a first generation process and a second generation process. The first generation process generates first partial print data by converting a set of partial image data using a first color conversion profile. The second generation process generates second partial print data by converting another set of partial image data using a second color conversion profile. In a case where the unidirectional printing method is set as the target printing method, the processor executes a third generation process generating third partial print data by converting a set of partial image data using a third color conversion profile.

A printing apparatus includes a head configured to discharge liquid to a printing medium, a carriage configured to move the head back and forth to one side and another side in a scanning direction with respect to the printing medium, and a control unit configured to perform printing of a printing image with the liquid by controlling driving of the head and the carriage. When performing printing of an end portion of the printing image on the one side, the control unit performs the printing by a first scan in which the head is moved from the one side to the other side, and when performing printing of an end portion of the printing image on the other side, the control unit performs the printing by a second scan in which the head is moved from the other side to the one side.

A control unit configured to perform multi-pass printing provided that a region of a printing medium including a first region, a region downstream of the first region is a second region, and a region downstream of the second region is a third region, in a first period in which the first region is a target of printing, causes a velocity of paper feed to be slower than in a third period in which the third region is a target of printing; in the first period, causes a standby time of the printing head to be longer than in the third period; and in a second period in which the second region is a target of printing, changes the standby time so that the standby time approaches the standby time in the first period from the standby time in the third period as the first region approaches the printing head.

A recording method for performing recording on a medium by forming dots by ejecting a liquid from nozzles during scanning. The recording method includes detecting an abnormal nozzle; disposing a normal nozzle in a row where dot missing occurs due to the abnormal nozzle by moving a medium by a first moving amount; performing first complementary recording in which at least a part of a dot missing region is complemented by a first dot which is recorded by the normal nozzle during the scanning; moving the medium by a second moving amount; and performing second complementary recording in which a second dot of which a size is greater than a size of a dot determined based on printing data is recorded on a row adjacent to a row of the abnormal nozzle by the normal nozzle that is positioned adjacent to the abnormal nozzle during the scanning.