| US 7,611,219 B2 | ||
| Ejection control of quality-enhancing ink | ||
| Toshiaki Kakutani, Nagano-ken (Japan) | ||
| Assigned to Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo (Japan) | ||
| Filed on Jul. 07, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/886,964. | ||
| Claims priority of application No. 2003-193262 (JP), filed on Jul. 08, 2003. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2005/0035987 A1, Feb. 17, 2005 | ||
| Int. Cl. B41J 29/38 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 347—15 [347/43; 347/100; 358/1.9; 358/1.14; 358/502; 358/3.01; 358/3.02; 358/3.03; 358/3.04; 358/3.05; 358/3.06] | 11 Claims |
| 1. A printing control method of generating print data to be supplied to a print unit to print, the print unit forming dots
on a print medium by ejecting ink droplets of at least one type of colored ink containing a color material and a quality-enhancing
ink for enhancing quality of a printed material, the printing control method comprising:
a dot data-generating step of generating dot data representing a state of dot formation at each pixel in a printed image to
reproduce an image represented by a given image data, by formation of dots in respective pixels with the at least one colored
ink and the quality-enhancing ink available in the print unit, wherein
the dot data-generating step includes a processing mode configured to make a quality-enhancing ink dot-recording rate for
pixels belonging to a peripheral area lower than the quality-enhancing ink dot-recording rate for pixels belonging to a center
area with regard to at least one identical pixel value of the image data, wherein
the quality-enhancing ink dot-recording rate is a dot-recording rate of the quality-enhancing ink;
the peripheral area is set at end portions of the printing medium;
the center area is set in a central portion of the printing medium; and
wherein the dot data-generating step further includes
a color conversion step of converting color in each pixel of the image data into a tone value, the tone value being for expressing
the color with the at least one colored ink and the quality-enhancing ink available in the print unit, and
a color-quantizing step of generating the dot data representing a state of dot formation at each pixel, in response to the
converted tone value with regard to each pixel of the image data, wherein
the color conversion step includes a processing mode configured to make a quality-enhancing ink tone value for pixels belonging
to the peripheral area lower than the quality-enhancing ink tone value for pixels belonging to the center area with regard
to at least one identical pixel value of the image data, and wherein
the quality-enhancing ink tone value is the tone value of the quality-enhancing ink.
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