Print jobs call for printing multiple logical pages on the same sheet, using base colorants and an extension colorant, and call for a different number of printing passes of the extension colorant for different logical pages. A first bitmap is created, and a first printing pass prints the first bitmap. The first bitmap is then modified to leave only the extension colorant plane, to create a modified bitmap; and a second printing pass prints the modified bitmap on the same sheet. The modified bitmap is additionally modified by removing printing pixels for the logical pages that do not contain an instruction to perform an additional printing pass of the extension colorant; and an additional printing pass prints the modified bitmap. These printing passes are repeated until no more of the logical pages contain the instruction to perform an additional printing pass of the extension colorant.

A method and apparatus for subdividing and printing regions of a substrate with multiple print heads or multiple print head assemblies which substantially decreases printing time is described. The method includes a feathering method which reduces overlap artifacts which is useful in any printing situation where adjacent regions are printed that could be misaligned, offset, or have slightly different colors.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, to improve processing performance, a printing apparatus that performs printing by using a printhead formed by a plurality of headchips includes one CPU, a table configured to store processing contents set by the CPU, and a plurality of processing units configured to process, in parallel, printing data to be used in each headchip by commonly using the table and in accordance with the processing contents set in the table. In addition, the apparatus includes a plurality of control units configured to wait for the completion of the processing of each processing unit, synchronize the plurality of processing units for next processing, and cause each of the processing units to execute the next processing in accordance with the processing contents set in the table.

The disclosure is directed to systems and methods for image capturing technologies and, more particularly, to a slice scan imaging system and respective processes to achieve high quality images. The method can be implemented in a computing device, which includes: capturing multiple lines of an image in a single slice; capturing multiple slices; stitching together the multiple slices by aligning common features of the images of a previous slice with a successive slice; and blending together the stitched together multiple slices.

A scanning inkjet printing method comprises arranging a recording medium on a print surface; moving a carriage supporting at least one inkjet print head over the recording medium on the print surface in a scanning direction, while image-wise applying droplets of a liquid to the recording medium to form a first swath of printed dots on the recording medium; moving the recording medium and the carriage relative to each other in a transport direction, wherein the transport direction is transverse to the scanning direction; moving the carriage over the recording medium on the print surface in the scanning direction, while image-wise applying droplets of the liquid to the recording medium to form a second swath of printed dots on the recording medium; detecting a position of the first swath; determining a sub-carriage movement relative to the carriage in response to the detected position of the first swath to position the second swath relative to the first swath, wherein the sub-carriage is supported by the carriage and the movement comprises an amount of translation in the transport direction transverse to the scanning direction and an amount of rotation around a rotation axis, wherein said rotation axis is perpendicular to the print surface; and moving the sub-carriage in accordance with the determined amount of translation and the determined amount of rotation. Thus, the first and the second swath may be positioned accurately adjacent to reduce visibility of stitching inaccuracies between adjacent swaths.

An image processing apparatus performs quantization processing of first multivalued image data, second multivalued image data, and third multivalued image data using a dither pattern including a plurality of threshold pixels having threshold values respectively determined for quantization, generates first recording data by quantizing the first multivalued image data using a dither pattern having a threshold pixel arrangement satisfying a predetermined condition regarding the number of threshold pixels and a predetermined condition regarding low-frequency components corresponding to a frequency region lower than a predetermined frequency in spatial frequency characteristics corresponding to an arrangement of the threshold pixels, generates second recording data by quantizing the second multivalued image data using the dither pattern having the threshold pixel arrangement, and generates third recording data by quantizing the third multivalued image data using the dither pattern having the threshold pixel arrangement and the second multivalued image data.

A laser scanning unit includes a rotary polygon mirror, a shaft support portion, a plurality of light application portions, and a plurality of scanning lenses. The plurality of light application portions are configured to cause light beams to be incident at a plurality of incidence positions different in an axial direction parallel to the rotary shaft on the rotary polygon mirror. In the laser scanning unit, the following relationship is satisfied: when, of the plurality of light beams, a specific light beam incident at the incidence position that is most distant from the shaft support portion on the rotary polygon mirror passes through an optical axis of the corresponding scanning lens, an angle between the specific light beam incident on the rotary polygon mirror and the optical axis of the scanning lens is closest to a reference angle defined in advance as a usage condition of the scanning lens.

A scanning inkjet printing method comprises arranging a recording medium on a print surface; moving a carriage supporting at least one inkjet print head over the recording medium on the print surface in a scanning direction, while image-wise applying droplets of a liquid to the recording medium to form a first swath of printed dots on the recording medium; moving the recording medium and the carriage relative to each other in a transport direction, wherein the transport direction is transverse to the scanning direction; moving the carriage over the recording medium on the print surface in the scanning direction, while image-wise applying droplets of the liquid to the recording medium to form a second swath of printed dots on the recording medium; detecting a position of the first swath; determining a sub-carriage movement relative to the carriage in response to the detected position of the first swath to position the second swath relative to the first swath, wherein the sub-carriage is supported by the carriage and the movement comprises an amount of translation in the transport direction transverse to the scanning direction and an amount of rotation around a rotation axis, wherein said rotation axis is perpendicular to the print surface; and moving the sub-carriage in accordance with the determined amount of translation and the determined amount of rotation. Thus, the first and the second swath may be positioned accurately adjacent to reduce visibility of stitching inaccuracies between adjacent swaths.

Disclosed are methods and systems for compensating for process direction banding associated with a document processing system including a ROS. According to one exemplary embodiment, a ROS driver uses a plurality of beam delay/advance values to compensate for banding caused by an interaction of a halftone pattern and process direction density variations associated with the ROS.

A method and apparatus for subdividing and printing regions of a substrate with multiple print heads or multiple print head assemblies which substantially decreases printing time is described. The method includes a feathering method which reduces overlap artifacts which is useful in any printing situation where adjacent regions are printed that could be misaligned, offset, or have slightly different colors.