JP2013067040A - Printing device, printing method and printing program - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided are a printing apparatus, a printing method, and a printing program capable of obtaining good image quality when pigment black ink and dye black ink are overprinted.
SOLUTION: A head 41 on which nozzle rows for ejecting ink are formed and a transport unit for transporting a medium are provided. The nozzle rows of the head 41 include nozzle rows Kp1 and Kp2, which eject pigment black ink, And the nozzle row Kd that discharges the dye black ink, and the nozzle row Kp1 is shifted from the nozzle row Kp2 and the nozzle row Kd in the medium transport direction.
[Selection] Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, a printing method, and a printing program.

  Conventionally, as described in, for example, Patent Document 1, an ink jet recording method in which a black ink composition containing a pigment as a colorant and a black ink composition containing a dye as a colorant are overprinted. It has been known. In such an ink jet recording method, it is said that the density of black can be increased, and an image quality with a high saturation and a high reproduction range can be obtained.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-1647

  However, the ink jet recording method described in Patent Document 1 discloses a specific method (nozzle arrangement, recording method) for obtaining a good image quality when printing the pigment black ink and the dye black ink on top of each other. Not.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus, a printing method, and a printing program capable of obtaining a good image quality when the pigment black ink and the dye black ink are overprinted.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is to solve at least a part of the problems described above, and the invention can be implemented as the following forms or application examples.

  Application Example 1 A head having a nozzle array for ejecting ink and a transport unit for transporting a medium are provided, and the nozzle array includes a first nozzle array and a second nozzle that eject pigment black ink. And a third nozzle row that discharges dye black ink, and the first nozzle row is shifted from the second nozzle row and the third nozzle row in the transport direction of the medium. A printing device.

  According to the printing apparatus described above, the first nozzle row that discharges the pigment black ink has a medium that is different from the second nozzle row that discharges the pigment black ink and the third nozzle row that discharges the dye black ink. They are shifted in the transport direction. Thereby, the time interval between the discharge of the pigment black ink and the discharge of the dye black ink can be increased, and a good image quality can be obtained when the pigment black ink and the dye black ink are printed in an overlapping manner.

  Application Example 2 The nozzle row forms a plurality of raster lines in which the pigment black ink and the dye black ink overlap while moving in a direction intersecting the transport direction, and the plurality of raster lines are formed by the nozzles. The above-described printing apparatus formed by ejecting ink while the row moves a plurality of times.

  According to the printing apparatus described above, a raster in which the pigment black ink and the dye black ink are overlapped is formed by ejecting ink while the nozzle row moves a plurality of times in the direction intersecting the transport direction to form a plurality of raster lines. You can get a line.

  Application Example 3 In the printing apparatus, at least some of the plurality of dots formed by the pigment black ink are formed below the plurality of dots formed by the dye black ink.

  According to the printing apparatus described above, since the dots formed by the pigment black ink are formed below the dots formed by the dye black ink, the penetration of the dye black ink into the medium can be further suppressed. Can be sufficiently increased in printing density.

  Application Example 4 In the printing apparatus, the second nozzle row is disposed between the first nozzle row and the third nozzle row.

  According to the printing apparatus described above, the pigment black ink formed by the second nozzle row after the dots of the pigment black ink are formed by each of the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row in the forward path of bidirectional printing. Dye black ink dots can be formed on the ink dots by the third nozzle row. In the return pass, the dye black ink dots can be formed by the third nozzle row on the pigment black ink dots formed by the first nozzle row in the forward pass. As a result, the dye black ink can be further prevented from penetrating into the medium, and the black printing density can be sufficiently increased.

  Application Example 5 A printing method using a printing apparatus including a head in which a nozzle array for ejecting ink is formed and a transport unit for transporting a medium, wherein the nozzle array ejects pigment black ink. A first nozzle row, a second nozzle row, and a third nozzle row for discharging dye black ink, wherein the first nozzle row is relative to the second nozzle row and the third nozzle row. The nozzle row is arranged in a shifted manner in the transport direction of the medium, and the nozzle row forms a plurality of raster lines in which the pigment black ink and the dye black ink overlap while moving in a direction intersecting the transport direction, The plurality of raster lines are formed by ejecting ink while the nozzle moves a plurality of times.

  According to the above-described printing method, the first nozzle row that discharges the pigment black ink has a medium that is different from the second nozzle row that discharges the pigment black ink and the third nozzle row that discharges the dye black ink. They are shifted in the transport direction. Thereby, the time interval between the discharge of the pigment black ink and the discharge of the dye black ink can be increased, and a good image quality can be obtained when the pigment black ink and the dye black ink are printed in an overlapping manner.

  Application Example 6 A printing program for controlling a printing apparatus including a head in which a nozzle array for ejecting ink is formed and a transport unit for transporting a medium, wherein the nozzle array ejects pigment black ink A first nozzle row, a second nozzle row, and a third nozzle row for discharging dye black ink, wherein the first nozzle row is relative to the second nozzle row and the third nozzle row. The nozzle row is arranged in a shifted manner in the transport direction of the medium, and the nozzle row forms a plurality of raster lines in which the pigment black ink and the dye black ink overlap while moving in a direction intersecting the transport direction, The plurality of raster lines are printing programs that cause a computer to execute control formed by ejecting ink while the nozzles are moved a plurality of times.

  According to the above-described printing program, the first nozzle row that discharges the pigment black ink has a medium that is different from the second nozzle row that discharges the pigment black ink and the third nozzle row that discharges the dye black ink. They are shifted in the transport direction. Thereby, the time interval between the discharge of the pigment black ink and the discharge of the dye black ink can be increased, and a good image quality can be obtained when the pigment black ink and the dye black ink are printed in an overlapping manner.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of the overall configuration of a printing system in which a printer and a computer are connected, and FIG. 1B is a schematic perspective view of the printer. FIG. 2A is a diagram showing a general nozzle arrangement, and FIG. 2B is a diagram showing the nozzle arrangement of the present embodiment. It is a figure which shows the printing method of this embodiment.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with an example of a printing system in which a printing apparatus is an inkjet printer (hereinafter referred to as a printer) and a printer and a computer are connected.

  FIG. 1A is an overall configuration block diagram of a printing system in which the printer 1 and the computer 60 are connected, and FIG. 1B is a schematic perspective view of the printer 1. The printer 1 that has received the print data from the computer 60 that is an external device controls each unit (conveyance unit 20, carriage unit 30, head unit 40) by the controller 10, and forms an image on the paper S (medium). Further, the detector group 50 monitors the situation in the printer 1, and the controller 10 controls each unit based on the detection result.

  The controller 10 (control unit) is a control unit for controlling the printer 1. The interface unit 11 is for transmitting and receiving data between the computer 60 as an external device and the printer 1. The CPU 12 is an arithmetic processing unit for controlling the entire printer 1. The memory 13 is for securing an area for storing a program of the CPU 12, a work area, and the like. The CPU 12 controls each unit by the unit control circuit 14.

  The transport unit 20 (transport unit) is for transporting the sheet S by a predetermined transport amount in the transport direction after printing after feeding the sheet S (medium) to a printable position. The carriage unit 30 is for moving the head 41 in a direction crossing the transport direction (hereinafter referred to as “movement direction”). The head unit 40 is for ejecting ink onto the paper S and has a head 41.

  FIG. 2A shows a general nozzle arrangement employed for printing a pigment black ink and a dye black ink as a comparative example. Each nozzle is provided with a pressure chamber (not shown) containing ink and a piezo element (driving element) for discharging ink by changing the capacity of the pressure chamber. The nozzle of the comparative example can eject black pigment ink and cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dye inks.

  Each nozzle row is composed of 180 nozzles (# 1 to # 180). The nozzles belonging to each nozzle row are numbered sequentially from the nozzles on the downstream side in the transport direction (# 1 to # 180). In each nozzle row, the nozzles are arranged at a constant interval (180 dpi) in the transport direction. Further, the four-color dye ink nozzle rows (Cd, Md, Yd, Kd) and the pigment black nozzle row Kp have the same position in the transport direction.

  In such a printer, dot formation is performed by intermittently ejecting ink from a head that reciprocates from the printer home position HP to the FULL digit side to form a dot row (raster line) along the head movement direction on the paper S. The process and the transport process for transporting the paper S in the transport direction (direction intersecting the head movement direction) are alternately repeated. As a result, dots can be formed at positions different from the positions of the dots formed by the previous dot formation processing, and a two-dimensional image can be printed on the paper S. Hereinafter, one operation (image forming operation) in which an image is formed while the head moves in the moving direction is referred to as “pass (ejection operation)”.

In the printing method using the nozzle row of the comparative example, in the first pass (pass 1), printing is performed using the pigment black nozzle row Kp and the dye black nozzle row Kd while the head 41 moves from HP to the FULL digit side. . Then, the pigment black ink ejected from the pigment black nozzle array Kp is ejected onto the dye black ink ejected from the dye black nozzle array Kd preceding the head moving direction, and 180 raster lines are formed.
That is, in the comparative example, the overlapping line of the pigment black ink and the dye black ink is completed in one pass.

FIG. 2B is a diagram showing a nozzle arrangement on the lower surface of the head 41 in the present embodiment. Similar to the comparative example described above, a number of nozzles for ejecting ink are provided on the lower surface of the head 41. Each nozzle is provided with a pressure chamber (not shown) containing ink and a piezo element (driving element) for discharging ink by changing the capacity of the pressure chamber. The printer 1 of the present embodiment can eject black pigment ink and cyan, magenta, yellow, and black dye inks. Therefore, on the lower surface of the head 41 shown in FIG. 2B, pigment black nozzle rows Kp1 and Kp2 for discharging black pigment ink, a cyan nozzle row Cd for discharging cyan dye ink, and a magenta nozzle for discharging magenta dye ink. A row Md, a yellow nozzle row Yd that discharges yellow dye ink, and a dye black nozzle row Kd that discharges black dye ink are formed. Here, the pigment black nozzle rows Kp1 and Kp2 and the dye black nozzle row Kd are located at both ends in the moving direction of the head 41.
The pigment black nozzle row Kp1 corresponds to the first nozzle row in the present invention. The pigment black nozzle row Kp2 corresponds to the second nozzle row in the present invention. The dye black nozzle row Kd corresponds to the third nozzle row in the present invention.

  Each nozzle row is composed of 180 nozzles (# 1 to # 180). The nozzles belonging to each nozzle row are numbered sequentially from the nozzles on the downstream side in the transport direction (# 1 to # 180). In each nozzle row, the nozzles are arranged at a constant interval (180 dpi) in the transport direction. Furthermore, the four color dye ink nozzle rows (Cd, Md, Yd, Kd) and the pigment black nozzle row Kp2 have the same position in the transport direction, but the four color dye ink nozzle rows, the pigment black nozzle row Kp2, and the pigment black nozzle The position in the transport direction is shifted from the line Kp1 by half of the nozzle pitch (360 dpi) compared to the nozzle pitch of the four color dye ink nozzle lines. For example, the nozzle # 1 on the most downstream side of the pigment black nozzle row Kp1 is half the nozzle pitch of the four-color dye ink nozzle row (half nozzle pitch) with respect to the nozzle # 1 on the most downstream side of the dye black nozzle row Kd. ) Only on the downstream side in the transport direction.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a printing method for each pass. Here, the print resolution in the moving direction of the head 41 and the print resolution in the transport direction of the paper S are both set to 360 dpi. In the first pass (pass 1), printing is performed using the pigment black nozzle rows Kp1 and Kp2 and the dye black nozzle row Kd while the head 41 moves from HP to the FULL digit side. Then, since the pigment black nozzle row Kp1, the pigment black nozzle row Kp2 and the dye black nozzle row Kd are shifted by 360 dpi, 360 raster lines (R1 to R360) are formed in total. In FIG. 3, the pigment black ink ejected from the pigment black nozzle row Kp1 or Kp2 is indicated by a black circle, and the dye black ink ejected from the dye black nozzle row Kd is indicated by a white circle. As shown in the figure, in pass 1, odd-numbered raster lines (R1, R3,... R359) are formed of only pigment black ink, and even-numbered raster lines (R2, R4,... R360) are pigments. It is formed of black ink and dye black ink. After the image is formed by pass 1, the sheet S is transported by 360 dpi in the transport direction.

  In the second pass (pass 2), the dye black ink is ejected onto the odd-numbered raster lines (R1, R3,... R359) formed only with the pigment black ink in pass 1 using the dye black nozzle row Kd. Thus, a raster line composed of pigment black ink and dye black ink is formed. Neither pigment black ink nor dye black ink is ejected to even-numbered raster lines (R2, R4,... R360). With the above image forming method, all raster lines (R1 to R360) can be formed with pigment black ink and dye black ink in two passes.

  As in the above printing method, the pigment black ink is printed on all raster lines in pass 1, and only the dye black ink is printed in pass 2, thereby reducing the time interval for printing the pigment black ink and the dye black ink. It can be made larger than the comparative example described above. Thereby, it is possible to further suppress the dye black ink from penetrating into the printing medium, and to sufficiently increase the black printing density.

  In the embodiment described above, a printer that discharges pigment ink and dye ink with respect to black ink is taken as an example. However, the present invention may be applied to a printer having pigment ink and dye ink in color inks such as cyan, magenta, and yellow. . When applied to color inks, the density of each color can be increased by providing a time difference for each pass in printing of pigment ink and dye ink.

  In the above-described embodiment, a printer having nozzle arrays for cyan, magenta, and yellow dye inks is taken as an example. However, cyan, magenta, and yellow may be pigment inks, and cyan, magenta, yellow, and the like. The present invention may be applied to a printer having only the black ink without the color ink.

  Further, in the embodiment described above, two pigment black nozzle rows are provided, but three or more rows may be provided. When the nozzle pitch is 180 dpi and there are N pigment black nozzle rows, the pigment black nozzle rows are arranged shifted by (180 × N) dpi in the transport direction. In pass 1, raster lines (180 × N) can be formed, and the resolution in the transport direction is also (180 × N) dpi. At this time, all the raster lines are formed with the pigment ink, and the raster line with the number (an integer multiple of N) is formed with the dye ink. In pass 2, a raster line numbered (integer multiple of N-1) is formed, and in pass 3, a raster line numbered (integer multiple of N-2) is formed. Eventually, all the raster lines are formed by the pigment ink and the dye ink in pass N, and the black print density can be sufficiently increased as in the above-described embodiment.

  In monochrome printing using only black ink in the above-described embodiment, if the user wants to prioritize printing speed over black printing density, it is not necessary to use dye black ink. In this case, since there are two pigment black nozzle rows, printing can be performed at twice the speed as compared with when the dye black ink is used. That is, it is possible to allow the user to select which of the print density and the print speed is prioritized.

  Further, printing may be performed only when the head 41 moves from the HP to the FULL digit side (unidirectional printing), and printing may also be performed when the head 41 moves from the FULL digit side to the HP. Good (bidirectional printing).

  In the above-described embodiment, the first nozzle row (Kp1) and the second nozzle row (Kp2) in which the head discharges the pigment black ink in order to discharge (print) the pigment black ink and the dye black ink in an overlapping manner. And the third nozzle row (Kd) that discharges the dye black ink, and the first nozzle row and the second and third nozzle rows are arranged so as to be shifted in the transport direction. However, the present invention is not limited to these examples, and any nozzle row arrangement and recording method may be used as long as the line where the pigment black ink and the dye black ink overlap is formed in a plurality of passes instead of a single pass. May be.

  In the above-described embodiment, the first nozzle row and the second and third nozzle rows are arranged so as to be shifted in the transport direction. However, even if the nozzle rows are not physically shifted, the ejection is performed. It is only necessary that the nozzles are substantially displaced. That is, even when a dummy nozzle (non-ejection nozzle) is formed, it is included in the embodiment.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printer, 10 ... Controller, 11 ... Interface part, 12 ... CPU, 13 ... Memory, 14 ... Unit control circuit, 20 ... Conveyance unit, 30 ... Carriage unit, 40 ... Head unit, 41 ... Head, 50 ... Detector Group, 60 ... computer.

Claims (6)

A head formed with a nozzle row for discharging ink;
A transport unit for transporting the medium;
With
The nozzle row includes a first nozzle row and a second nozzle row for discharging pigment black ink, and a third nozzle row for discharging dye black ink,
The first nozzle row is arranged to be shifted in the transport direction of the medium with respect to the second nozzle row and the third nozzle row.
Printing device. The nozzle row forms a plurality of raster lines in which the pigment black ink and the dye black ink overlap while moving in a direction intersecting the transport direction,
The plurality of raster lines are formed by ejecting ink while the nozzle row moves a plurality of times.
The printing apparatus according to claim 1. At least some of the plurality of dots formed by the pigment black ink are formed under the plurality of dots formed by the dye black ink.
The printing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. The second nozzle row is disposed between the first nozzle row and the third nozzle row,
The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A head formed with a nozzle row for discharging ink;
A transport unit for transporting the medium;
A printing method using a printing apparatus comprising:
The nozzle row includes a first nozzle row and a second nozzle row for discharging pigment black ink, and a third nozzle row for discharging dye black ink,
The first nozzle row is arranged so as to be shifted in the transport direction of the medium with respect to the second nozzle row and the third nozzle row,
The nozzle row forms a plurality of raster lines in which the pigment black ink and the dye black ink overlap while moving in a direction intersecting the transport direction,
The plurality of raster lines are formed by ejecting ink while the nozzle moves a plurality of times. A head formed with a nozzle row for discharging ink;
A transport unit for transporting the medium;
A printing program for controlling a printing apparatus comprising:
The nozzle row includes a first nozzle row and a second nozzle row for discharging pigment black ink, and a third nozzle row for discharging dye black ink,
The first nozzle row is arranged so as to be shifted in the transport direction of the medium with respect to the second nozzle row and the third nozzle row,
The nozzle row forms a plurality of raster lines in which the pigment black ink and the dye black ink overlap while moving in a direction intersecting the transport direction,
The plurality of raster lines are printing programs that cause a computer to execute control formed by ejecting ink while the nozzles are moved a plurality of times.

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