US 7,585,038 B2
Inkjet printing method and inkjet printing apparatus
Tsuyoshi Shibata, Kanagawa (Japan); Kazuyuki Maeda, Kanagawa (Japan); and Hitoshi Tsuboi, Kanagawa (Japan)
Assigned to Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo (Japan)
Filed on Jul. 22, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/623,541.
Claims priority of application No. 2002-215847 (JP), filed on Jul. 24, 2002.
Prior Publication US 2004/0119766 A1, Jun. 24, 2004
Int. Cl. B41J 29/38 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 347—12 2 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An inkjet printing method using a printing head having a plurality of nozzles capable of ejecting ink for printing an image by ejecting ink based on printing data which instructs ejection or non-ejection of ink, the plurality of nozzles being aligned next to each other along a predetermined direction, the printing head being driven based on the printing data to eject ink, wherein
the printing data corresponding to an abnormal nozzle malfunctioning in ink-ejection is added to the printing data corresponding to a neighboring nozzle of the abnormal nozzle,
when an N-th nozzle of the plurality of nozzles is an abnormal nozzle, a neighboring printing area neighboring a printing area to be printed by the N-th abnormal nozzle is printed by using an (N−M)-th neighboring nozzle and an (N+M)-th neighboring nozzle (where N and M are positive integers) arranged in the neighborhood of the N-th abnormal nozzle based on the printing data corresponding to the N-th abnormal nozzle, and
when the printing data corresponding to the N-th abnormal nozzle is added to that corresponding to the (N−M)-th neighboring nozzle and the (N+M)-th neighboring nozzle, a driving frequency for ejecting ink from the (N−M)-th neighboring nozzle and the (N+M)-th neighboring nozzle is increased by 2 times, the driving frequency being a frequency for driving the printing head to eject ink in performing the printing and being defined by a number of times the plurality of nozzles in the printing head are drivable during a predetermined period, timings of ink ejection performed based on original printing data corresponding to the (N−M)-th neighboring nozzle and the (N+M)-th neighboring nozzle being shifted from timings of ink ejection performed based on the printing data added to the printing data corresponding to the (N-M)-th neighboring nozzle and the (N+M)-th neighboring nozzle.