A liquid discharge apparatus includes a head and circuitry. The head discharges liquid to apply the liquid to an application surface. The circuitry controls discharge of the liquid from the head based on a vertical height of an application position at which the liquid is applied on the application surface.

A method for printing on sheets in an inkjet process using nozzles includes transporting the sheets on a drum. When the nozzles are actuated by a computer, banding defects are compensated for and the computer factors in or takes into consideration thermal properties of the drum as it actuates the nozzles.

A controller may detect an elevation of a recording medium that is to be printed to, the elevation may result in the printing element of a printing device being negatively affected. The controller may automatically produce a time-limited printing pause of the printing element in which the printing gap between the printing element and the recording medium is temporarily enlarged in order to direct the detected elevation past the printing element. A negative effect on the printing device given the presence of a damaged recording medium may thus be efficiently and reliably avoided or reduced.

A printer configured to perform printing on a medium while being manually moved to the medium includes a print job acquisition section configured to obtain a print job, a movement detection section configured to detect a movement direction of the printer relative to the medium, and a first control section configured to make a print head while the printer is moved in a first direction in an odd-numbered pass, and make the print head perform printing while the printer is moved in an opposite direction to the first direction in an even-numbered pass. When the printer is moved in the opposite direction to the movement direction in the pass in which the printing is in progress other than the last pass, the first control section stops the printing by the print head in the pass in which the printing is in progress and the subsequent passes.

A conveyer conveys an ejection target in a conveyance direction along a conveyance path including a facing position facing a nozzle surface of a liquid ejection head. A distance sensor outputs a distance signal that changes depending on a distance between the nozzle surface and a surface of the ejection target. A controller performs: receiving the distance signal outputted from the distance sensor and positional information relating to a position of the ejection target on the conveyance path; and during ejecting liquid from the nozzle to record an image on the ejection target, changing at least one of a determination condition and a coefficient based on the positional information, the determination condition being a condition for determining whether to interrupt recording of the image by referring to the distance signal, the coefficient being multiplied by a value of the distance signal when determining whether to interrupt recording.

A printing apparatus includes a head including a plurality of nozzles configured to discharge liquid to a medium, an abnormal nozzle detection unit configured to detect an abnormal nozzle having a discharging defect among the plurality of nozzles, a contact detection unit configured to detect contact between the head and the medium, a suction unit configured to perform an ejection operation of ejecting the liquid from the plurality of nozzles, and a control unit. The control unit executes a suction operation when the abnormal nozzle is detected and the contact between the head and the medium is detected, and the control unit executes a printing of complementing the abnormal nozzle when the abnormal nozzle is detected and the contact between the head and the medium is not detected.

An ink discharge apparatus includes a discharge head and a controller, the discharge head having a plurality of nozzle rows arranged in a first direction, each of the plurality of nozzle rows including a plurality of nozzles arranged to align in a second direction intersecting the first direction. The controller is configured to receive a print job and carry out a mode determining process to determine whether a print mode is a low gap print mode or a high gap print mode based on the print job, and a number of discharge reducing process to reduce the total number of discharging ink per unit time from the plurality of nozzles as compared with the case of the low gap print mode, if the print mode is determined as the high gap print mode.

Method and devices for dynamically preventing printing errors caused by a media deformation are disclosed. In one example, a pen to print media space (PPS) distance is measured. A media deformation is identified in response to measuring the PPS distance. A corrective function is identified in response to identifying the media deformation. The corrective function identified is then performed. The proposed method provides for consistent quality across a print.

An information processing apparatus includes an acquisition unit, a decision unit, a determination unit, and a change unit. The acquisition unit acquires a measurement result regarding a printing medium characteristic value. The decision unit decides a candidate for a printing medium type based on the acquired measurement result, and a reference characteristic value of each of printing media types set in advance to identify a type of the measured printing medium. Information associated with the printing medium type to be printed is input. The determination unit determines whether to change the reference characteristic value of the printing medium type associated with the input information based on the measurement result and the printing medium type associated with the input information. Wherein, when the determination unit determines to change the reference characteristic value, the change unit changes the reference characteristic value of the printing medium type based on the measurement result.

A three-dimensional object printing apparatus includes a liquid discharge head having a nozzle surface provided with a nozzle array including a plurality of nozzles for discharging a liquid, a moving mechanism that changes a position of the liquid discharge head with respect to a three-dimensional workpiece, and a sensor that detects a positional relationship of the liquid discharge head with respect to the workpiece, in which when an axis parallel to a normal line of the nozzle surface is set as a first axis, an axis parallel to the nozzle surface and intersecting an extending direction of the nozzle array is set as a second axis, and an axis that intersects both the first axis and the second axis is set as a third axis, the sensor detects a relative positional relationship of the liquid discharge head with respect to the workpiece in a direction along the third axis.