A controller extracts an image resolution in a first direction of image data stored in a memory; determines, based on the image data, whether a code image is included in an image to be printed on a recording medium, the code image being formed with a plurality of print regions and a plurality of non-print regions; in response to determining that the code image is included, determines whether a print resolution in the first direction is lower than the extracted image resolution in the first direction; in response to determining that the print resolution is lower than the extracted image resolution, updates the print resolution in the first direction with a value equal to or higher than the extracted image resolution in the first direction; and controls a print engine to perform printing on the recording medium with the updated print resolution in the first direction.

An aim is to provide a technique for obtaining a higher quality print image by reducing a banding caused upon printing using a printing head having nozzle rows. As a solution, an activated nozzle row is reselected each time when the activated nozzle row has discharged ink for a preset number of times, and in each scan, an interval by which the activated nozzle row discharges ink in a main scanning direction is set to be an integer multiple of a resolution of an image to be printed on a print medium in the main scanning direction.

A recording device includes, when a transporting direction of a medium is set to a first axis and a direction intersecting with the transporting direction is set to a second axis, a head which includes a nozzle column along the first axis; a pair of heads in which the heads discharging droplets of the same color are paired; and a head unit which includes a plurality of pairs of heads along the second axis. The pair of heads include a predetermined overlapping portion in which the nozzle columns are overlapped with each other in a side view from the second axis, the overlapping portion includes a plurality of nozzle regions divided along the second axis, and a position of the nozzle region which is used in discharge of the droplets is different from a position of the nozzle region of another pair of heads.

A printing control apparatus includes a control unit configured to perform control so that a distribution ratio based on which color separation data separated as having a predetermined color is distributed into data for a first nozzle array and a distribution ratio based on which color separation data is distributed into data for a second nozzle array are different depending on a tone value in the color separation data, and a generation unit configured to generate printing data to be used for printing by the first nozzle array based on the distributed data for the first nozzle array and generate printing data to be used for printing by the second nozzle array based on the distributed data for the second nozzle array.

A controller extracts an image resolution in a first direction of image data stored in a memory; determines, based on the image data, whether a code image is included in an image to be printed on a recording medium, the code image being formed with a plurality of print regions and a plurality of non-print regions; in response to determining that the code image is included, determines whether a print resolution in the first direction is lower than the extracted image resolution in the first direction; in response to determining that the print resolution is lower than the extracted image resolution, updates the print resolution in the first direction with a value equal to or higher than the extracted image resolution in the first direction; and controls a print engine to perform printing on the recording medium with the updated print resolution in the first direction.

Provided are an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a dither mask set, and an image recording apparatus capable of suppressing occurrence of banding and color unevenness without productivity decrease. Halftone processing is performed with respect to image data of a first color, in a range of a part of a recording duty, using a dither mask that realizes a first nozzle jetting rate in which a nozzle jetting rate of an end part nozzle is suppressed to be smaller than a nozzle jetting rate of a central nozzle. Further, halftone processing is performed with respect to image data of a second color different from the first color, using a dither mask that realizes a second nozzle jetting rate having smaller difference between the nozzle jetting rate of the end part nozzle and the nozzle jetting rate of the central nozzle than that in the first nozzle jetting rate.

Provided are an image recording apparatus, a dither mask, and an image recording method capable of reducing occurrence of concentration unevenness without decrease in productivity. In an image recording apparatus that repeats a main scan operation of relatively moving a recording head having a nozzle row with respect to a recording medium in a main scan direction to perform recording and a sub scan operation of relatively moving the recording medium with respect to the recording head in a sub scan direction, a nozzle jetting rate of each nozzle is controlled by a dither mask. The dither mask is subjected to threshold setting so that a sum of a sum of nozzle jetting rates of corresponding nozzles of respective nozzle groups used in recording a first half scan for recording each scan band and a sum of nozzle jetting rates of corresponding nozzles of respective nozzle groups used in recording a second half scan becomes a specific value that is in a defined allowable range, with respect to at least a part of a recording duty range.

Provided are an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a dither mask set, and an image recording apparatus capable of suppressing occurrence of banding and color unevenness without productivity decrease. Halftone processing is performed with respect to image data of a first color, in a range of a part of a recording duty, using a dither mask that realizes a first nozzle jetting rate in which a nozzle jetting rate of an end part nozzle is suppressed to be smaller than a nozzle jetting rate of a central nozzle. Further, halftone processing is performed with respect to image data of a second color different from the first color, using a dither mask that realizes a second nozzle jetting rate having smaller difference between the nozzle jetting rate of the end part nozzle and the nozzle jetting rate of the central nozzle than that in the first nozzle jetting rate.

Provided are an image recording apparatus, a dither mask, and an image recording method capable of reducing occurrence of concentration unevenness without decrease in productivity. In an image recording apparatus that repeats a main scan operation of relatively moving a recording head having a nozzle row with respect to a recording medium in a main scan direction to perform recording and a sub scan operation of relatively moving the recording medium with respect to the recording head in a sub scan direction, a nozzle jetting rate of each nozzle is controlled by a dither mask. The dither mask is subjected to threshold setting so that a sum of a sum of nozzle jetting rates of corresponding nozzles of respective nozzle groups used in recording a first half scan for recording each scan band and a sum of nozzle jetting rates of corresponding nozzles of respective nozzle groups used in recording a second half scan becomes a specific value that is in a defined allowable range, with respect to at least a part of a recording duty range.

A printing apparatus uses a printing unit on which a right and a left printing heads are mutually arranged in opposite orientations in a predetermined direction to execute multi-pass printing.