JP2002321349A - Method for ink jet recording and ink jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sufficient amount of treatment liquid required for improving recording quality and water resistance by deciding the amount of the treatment liquid corresponding to the amount of respective ink color materials to be applied to a material to be recorded in recording by using deep-and light- colored inks. SOLUTION: Respective individual treatment liquid data generation for deep cyan 2003 and treatment liquid data generation for light cyan 2006 are performed based on a deep cyan record data 2001 and a light cyan record data 2005 respectively. The ejection data is generated so that the ejection data is superposed on the ejection of the corresponding deep cyan ink and the light cyan ink 2004, 2008. The generation of the treatment liquid is carried out by thinning out by using mask relative to the deep cyan record date 2001 and the light cyan record data 2005, changing the thinning out rate corresponding to the shades.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording method and an ink-jet recording apparatus, and more particularly, to an ink-jet recording method and an ink-jet recording method in which a liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating a coloring material such as a dye or pigment of an ink is applied to the ink. It relates to a recording device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet recording method has advantages such as low noise, low running cost, easy downsizing of an apparatus, and easy colorization, and is widely used in printers and copiers.

When recording is performed on so-called plain paper by a recording apparatus using this ink jet recording method, the recorded image often has insufficient water resistance.
When recording a color image on such a recording material,
In many cases, it is not possible to achieve both high-density images with little feathering and images with little bleeding between inks of different colors. As described above, when a recording material, such as plain paper, which has not been subjected to a special treatment relating to ink absorption and fixing, is used, it has good water resistance or fastness and good quality. It was sometimes difficult to obtain a color image.

[0004] As a method of improving the water resistance of a recorded image on plain paper, in particular, an ink in which a coloring material contained in the ink has water resistance has been put to practical use. However, since its water resistance is still insufficient, and in principle it is hard to dissolve in water after drying,
There is a problem that clogging of the nozzles of the recording head is likely to occur, and the configuration of the apparatus becomes complicated to prevent this. Conventionally, many techniques for improving the robustness of a recorded matter have been disclosed. For example, JP-A-53-244
No. 86 discloses a technique in which the dye is raked and fixed by post-treatment of the dye to improve the wet fastness of the dye.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 54-43733 discloses a method of recording using an ink jet recording method using two or more components which, when they come into contact with each other, increase in film forming ability at room temperature or when heated. As a result, a printed material is obtained in which a coating is firmly adhered by contact of each component on the recording material.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-150396 discloses a method in which a water-resistant agent for forming a lake with a dye is applied after inkjet recording of an aqueous dye ink.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-128882 discloses a method of recognizing a position of an image to be recorded in advance, using a recording ink and a processing ink (processing liquid) for insolubilizing a coloring material such as a dye, and discharging the processing ink. An ink jet recording method is disclosed in which data is obtained based on ejection data of the recording ink, thereby recording the recording ink and the processing ink in a superimposed manner. In detail, drawing with the processing ink prior to the recording ink, overlapping the processing ink on the previously drawn recording ink, overlapping the recording ink on the previously drawn processing ink,
Further, there is disclosed a method of drawing the processing ink in an overlapping manner.

Incidentally, a color ink jet recording apparatus usually uses four kinds of inks of black (K), cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y). Devices using inks having the same color but different densities are also being provided.
Such a recording method using the inks of different densities for the same color is called density recording. Hereinafter, when comparing the two inks, the ink having a relatively high density is referred to as a “dark” ink, and the ink having a relatively low density is referred to as a “light” ink.
For example, a high-density cyan ink is referred to as “dark cyan”, and a low-density cyan ink is referred to as “light cyan”.

[0009] Also in this density recording, when plain paper or the like is used, the above-described respective prior arts are effective, and similarly, there is an effect of improving water resistance. Among them, a configuration in which a processing liquid is ejected from the recording head by using ejection data based on ejection data of recording ink using a recording head for a treatment liquid can use the configuration of a general ink jet recording apparatus as it is, and can be simplified. And water resistance of the recording result can be obtained.

In this configuration, the ejection data for the processing liquid is obtained by predetermined data processing from the ejection data of the ink. The amount of the processing liquid to be ejected to the ink is appropriately determined by a combination of the components of the ink and the processing liquid and the ejection amount of each recording head.

The above-mentioned processing liquid not only improves the water resistance of the recorded image, but also insolubilizes the coloring material such as a dye. Therefore, the insolubilizing coloring material is added to the relatively upper layer of the recording material. And the density of the recorded image can be increased. In addition, bleeding can also be prevented by the insolubilization described above.
This treatment liquid is also a liquid that improves printability (recording quality and the like), and therefore, in this specification, the treatment liquid and the printability improvement liquid are synonymous.

[0012]

By the way, in the above-described dark and light recording, the processing liquid ejection data for applying the processing liquid to each of the dark ink and the light ink is generated. For example, when the processing liquid ejection data is generated at the same ratio as one processing liquid drop, the processing liquid is too small for the dark ink, while the processing liquid is too large for the light ink. That situation occurs. That is, in order to obtain water resistance, it is sufficient to use an amount of the processing liquid that insolubilizes all the coloring materials in the ink. In this case, at the same ejection amount, the light ink has a smaller amount of the color material than the dark ink, so that the amount of the processing liquid may be smaller accordingly. Conversely, it is necessary to apply more treatment liquid to dark ink than to light ink. But,
Conventionally, when a processing liquid is used for such dark and light recording, the amount of the processing liquid to be applied to the recording material is not changed between the dark ink and the light ink, so that the processing liquid is applied to the recording material. An excess or deficiency of the processing solution has occurred.

In this case, an ink jet recording apparatus uses an ink containing water as a main component. Therefore, when ink droplets are used in an unnecessary amount, a recording material such as paper can have irregularities due to the inclusion of water. appear. The cockling causes adverse effects such as unevenness of an image and breakage of the recording head due to contact between the recording head and paper. In addition, a problem that running cost is increased by using the processing liquid more than necessary also arises.

[0014] Such a problem is caused not only when dark and light inks are used, but also when the types of coloring materials such as dyes and pigments are used.
Specifically, this can occur even when the colors of the inks such as cyan, magenta, and yellow are different. For example, comparing the dye of magenta ink and the dye of cyan ink,
In the case where the magenta dye has such a property that it is difficult to bond to the processing liquid, there may be a problem that the amount of the processing liquid for the magenta ink is too large or the amount of the processing liquid for the cyan ink is too small.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to use inks having different amounts of color materials such as dark and light inks and inks having different types of color materials. In the case of performing recording by using, the amount of the processing liquid is determined according to the amount or type of the color material of each ink applied to the recording material, so that the amount of processing necessary and sufficient to improve the recording quality and the water resistance is improved. An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording method and an ink jet recording apparatus to which a liquid can be applied.

[0016]

According to the present invention, there is provided:
A recording head that ejects a plurality of inks having different color material amounts or types, and a recording head that ejects a processing liquid that causes a predetermined action on the color material of the ink by contacting each of the plurality of inks In an ink jet recording method for performing recording by discharging ink and a processing liquid onto a recording material using a head, discharging is performed according to the amount or type of the color material of each ink discharged from the recording head onto the recording material. It is characterized in that the processing liquid amount is made different.

Preferably, as the plurality of inks having different color material amounts, a plurality of inks having similar colors and different densities due to the different color material amounts are used, and the processing liquid amount for the higher density ink is reduced. The processing liquid amount is set to be larger than the processing liquid amount for the ink having a low concentration.

Also, a recording head for ejecting a plurality of inks having different color material amounts or types, and a process for causing a predetermined action on the color material of the ink by contacting each of the plurality of inks. In an ink jet recording apparatus that performs recording by discharging ink and a processing liquid onto a recording material using a recording head that discharges a liquid, according to the amount or type of a color material of each ink discharged from the recording head onto the recording material. The amount of the processing liquid to be discharged is made different.

Preferably, as the plurality of inks having different amounts of the color material, a plurality of inks having similar colors and different densities by using different amounts of the color material are used, and the amount of the processing liquid for the ink having a higher density is reduced. The processing liquid amount is set to be larger than the processing liquid amount for the low-concentration ink.

According to the above arrangement, the amount of the processing liquid to be discharged is varied according to the amount or type of the color material of each ink discharged from the recording head to the recording material.
For example, since the amount of the processing liquid for the ink having the higher concentration of the color material is larger than the amount of the processing liquid for the ink having the lower concentration of the color material, the color of the processing liquid with respect to the color material is determined by the predetermined action. The amount of the material and the amount of the processing liquid can be made to correspond to each other without excess or shortage, whereby it is possible to prevent the amount of the processing liquid or the ink discharged onto the recording material from being too large or too small.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a data flow or a data processing configuration relating to generation of processing liquid ejection data according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, this data processing is executed by a host computer described later with reference to FIG. 4 or a control unit of the ink jet printer of the present embodiment based on predetermined software.

In FIG. 1, a quantizing means 1000 quantizes print data to generate quantized data for discharging each color ink. The reception buffer 1001 receives the data quantized by the quantization means 1000 and temporarily stores the data. Then, the processing liquid data generating means 1002
The processing liquid ejection data is generated from the quantized data for each color ink. The processing liquid data generation mask setting unit 1004 includes a thinning master pattern used to generate the processing liquid ejection data. Set the data.
The head control means 1003 drives the recording head of the processing liquid based on the quantized data thus obtained to discharge the processing liquid.

In the above configuration, quantization (means) is performed by the host computer in the present embodiment. However, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited as to whether each processing shown in FIG. 1 is performed by the host computer or the inkjet printer.
The ink jet printer may perform all of the above processing. For example, the host computer executes processing liquid data generation (means) 1002, processing liquid data generation mask setting (means) 1004, and receives the printer. The buffer 1001 may be configured to receive ejection data of each color ink forming the image and ejection data of the processing liquid. As described above, the present invention can be implemented by a combination of a host computer and an inkjet printer, or can be implemented by an inkjet printer alone.
In the present specification, not only the latter case but also the former case are included in the ink jet recording apparatus unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of the ink jet printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a sheet 106 as a recording material inserted into a sheet feeding position of a printer 100 is conveyed to a recording area by a recording head unit 103 by a feed roller 109 driven by a line feed motor (not shown). A platen 108 is provided below the sheet 106 in the recording area, so that the flatness of the sheet 106 can be maintained during recording.

The carriage 101 has guide shafts 104, 1
05 is provided along the two guide shafts, and the driving force of a carriage motor (not shown)
By transmitting the information via a belt (not shown) connected to a part of the recording area 01, the recording area can reciprocate. This movement allows the print head to scan the print area. That is, a print head unit 103 including a print head for ejecting a plurality of colors of ink and a processing liquid and an ink tank for supplying the ink and the processing liquid to each print head is detachably mounted on the carriage 101. Will be installed. The plurality of color inks used in this embodiment include black (K), dark cyan (C), dark magenta (M), dark yellow (Y), light cyan (LC), light magenta (LM), and light yellow ( LY)
7 types of ink.

A recovery unit 110 is provided below the left end of the area where the carriage 101 can move.
The recovery system unit 110 can cap a portion of the recording head where the ejection openings are provided during non-printing, or perform a suction restoration process of sucking ink in the recording head through the ejection openings in the cap state. it can. This left end is called the home position of the recording head.

Reference numeral 107 denotes a switch unit and a display element unit. The switch unit is used when turning on / off the power of the printer, setting various recording modes, and the like, and the display unit displays the status of the printer. .

FIG. 3A is a perspective view showing details of the recording head unit 103 shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the ink tanks for the black, dark cyan, dark magenta, dark yellow, light cyan, light magenta, and light yellow inks and the ink tanks for the processing liquid can be exchanged independently.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the carriage 101
Includes a recording head 102 for ejecting inks and processing liquids of K, C, M, Y, LC, LM, and LY, a K tank 20K, a C tank 20C, an M tank 20M, a Y tank 20Y, LC Tank 20LC, LM tank 20
LM, LY tank 20LY and processing solution tank 20S
Is mounted. Each tank is connected to the recording head via a connection portion, whereby ink and a processing liquid are supplied to a liquid path (nozzle) communicating with the ejection port via each ink supply path in the recording head.

The structure of the ink tank may be, for example, an integral structure of a processing liquid tank and a black ink tank, or an integral structure of an ink tank of a color other than black. And ink tanks of similar colors, such as light cyan and light cyan, may have an integral structure.

FIG. 3B is a schematic view schematically showing the surface of the recording head 102 on which the ejection openings are provided. As shown in the drawing, the recording head 102 includes a black ink discharge unit (a discharge port array, the same applies hereinafter) 21K that discharges black ink, and dark ink discharge units 21C and 21M that discharge dark cyan, magenta, and yellow ink, respectively. , 21Y, light cyan, magenta, and yellow inks, and a processing liquid discharge unit 21S that discharges a processing liquid. The ejection amount of each color ink is the same. That is, when one drop of ink is applied per pixel, the amount of color material applied per pixel is larger when one dark ink is applied than when one light ink is applied. For example, assuming that the dye concentration of the dark ink is twice the dye concentration of the light ink, the amount of the coloring material applied per pixel is 2 times the light ink dot of the dark ink dot formed by each ink. Double.

The recording head according to the present embodiment is of a system in which bubbles are generated in ink by using thermal energy generated by a heater constituted by an electrothermal transducer, and the ink is ejected by the pressure of the bubbles. is there. However, it goes without saying that the application of the present invention is not limited by such a discharge method, and other known methods such as a piezo method can be used.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control structure of the ink jet printer according to this embodiment.

In FIG. 4, from the host computer,
Character or image data to be recorded (hereinafter referred to as image data or recording data) is input to the reception buffer 401 of the printer 100. Further, data for confirming whether or not data has been correctly transferred,
Is transmitted from the printer 100 to the host computer via the reception buffer 401. The data in the reception buffer 401 is transferred to the memory unit 403 and temporarily stored in a RAM (random access memory) under the control of a control unit 402 having a CPU. The mechanical control unit 404 controls the operation of a mechanical unit 405 such as a carriage motor or a line feed motor in accordance with an instruction from the control unit 402. The sensor / SW control unit 406 includes various sensors and SWs (switches).
A signal from a sensor / SW unit 407 comprising
Send to 2. The display element control unit 408 includes the control unit 4
In response to an instruction from the control unit 02, the display device unit 409 including the LEDs of the display panel group and the liquid crystal display device is controlled. Further, the head control unit 410 controls driving of the recording head 102 for ink ejection according to an instruction from the control unit 402. The head control unit 4
Reference numeral 10 detects temperature information indicating the state of the recording head 102 and transmits the detected information to the control unit 402.

With the configuration shown in FIG. 4, the processing or means shown in FIG. 1 can be configured, and the data processing or means shown in FIG. 5 can be configured.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the processing for generating the processing liquid ejection data, using processing liquid data for dark cyan ink and light cyan ink as an example. Specifically, FIG.
In the case of using the print head having the configuration shown in (b), for each of the dark cyan ink and the light cyan ink, the ejection data for the processing liquid is obtained by thinning out the ink ejection data using the respective mask data. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a method of generating a single scan of the print head for each pixel.

In FIG. 5, first, dark cyan ejection data is generated for the binarized dark cyan ink recording data 2001 (2002). Here, in the case of so-called one-pass printing in which all dots to be formed in the scanning area are printed in one scan of the print head, since the ejection data is the same as the dark cyan print data 2001, the processing is skipped. Become. In addition, the scanning area is scanned a plurality of times,
In the case of so-called multi-pass printing in which printing is performed with different ejection ports for discharging ink, dark cyan print data 200 is used.
Dark cyan ejection data is generated by thinning out one.
As the thinning method, a conventionally known mask or a method such as a so-called sequential multi-scan (SMS) method of sequentially assigning ejection ports for performing ejection at predetermined intervals to data indicating ejection of print data is used. it can.

The dark cyan ejection data generated by the dark cyan ejection data generating means 2002 is sent to the dark cyan head control means 2010, and based on this data, the dark cyan ink ejection section of the recording head 102 Dark cyan ink is ejected. Similar processing is performed for the light cyan ink.

Next, a method of generating processing liquid ejection data will be described. In the present embodiment, separate processing liquid data extraction masks are used for dark and light inks, and thinning is performed using those mask data.

The ejection data of the processing liquid with respect to the dark cyan ink is, first, the final recording data 20 of the dark cyan ink.
01 is subjected to thinning-out processing using a predetermined mask to generate processing liquid data for dark cyan (2003), and the dark cyan discharge data generated by the dark cyan discharge data generating means 2002 and discharged by scanning at that time. It is generated by taking a logical product (2004) with the ink ejection data. The logical product is calculated by the processing liquid data generating means 20 for dark cyan.
This is because the processing liquid according to the processing liquid data generated in step 03 is ejected to the same pixel by the same scan as ink. The same process is performed for light cyan data,
The processing liquid ejection data for the light cyan dots is generated.

In the case where the discharge is performed from the processing liquid discharge unit based on the discharge data of the processing liquid generated as described above, when the recording head having the configuration shown in FIG. The discharge units for dark cyan and light cyan, dark magenta and light magenta, and dark yellow and light yellow respectively scan the same area and discharge the respective inks. Then, it is necessary that the processing liquid discharge unit discharges the processing liquid by scanning the same area with respect to each of the combinations of the dark and light inks. Therefore, the processing liquid data for the dark cyan ink generated by the processing liquid data generation unit 2004 and the processing liquid data for the light cyan ink generated by the processing liquid data generation unit 2008 for the combination of the light and dark inks Are ORed (2
009), is sent to the processing liquid discharge head control unit 2011 as final processing liquid discharge data.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic views showing an example of the processing liquid ejection data extraction mask described above. FIG.
(a) is a processing liquid extraction mask for dark ink dots, FIG.
(b) shows an extraction mask of the processing liquid for the light ink dot.

As shown in these figures, in this embodiment, a mask is used which applies a processing liquid with a 50% duty for dark ink and a 25% duty for light ink. In this configuration, the ejection amount is the same for the dark ink and the light ink, and the respective dye concentrations are 2:
This is the case of 1.

The mask to be used is not limited to the above-described mask, and may be set so that the extraction duty of the processing liquid for the dark ink is larger than the extraction duty of the processing liquid for the light ink.
At this time, in addition to the ratio of the dye concentration of the ink and the ratio of the ejection amount, the setting is made in consideration of the properties of the ink and the processing liquid.

In this embodiment, the mask is set according to the difference between the dark ink and the light ink regardless of the color of the ink. However, a different extraction mask may be used for each ink of a different color. For example, the color material of magenta ink (for example, magenta dye) and the color material of cyan ink (similarly, cyan dye) are compared, and the magenta color material has a property that it is difficult to be combined with the processing liquid. In such a case, the amount of the processing liquid for magenta ink is set to be larger than the amount of the processing liquid for cyan ink.

Further, in the present embodiment, two kinds of inks of the same color and different densities are used. However, when more importance is placed on gradation, three or more kinds of inks having different densities are used. Is also good. In this case, the same applies to the case where the application amount of the processing liquid to the ink having a higher concentration is larger than the application amount of the processing liquid to the ink having a lower concentration.

Further, the present embodiment is an example in which a recording head having the configuration shown in FIG. 3B is used. However, in the case where separate processing liquid ejection heads corresponding to dark ink and light ink are used, respectively. Is the logical sum means 2009 shown in FIG.
Is unnecessary, and the processing liquid discharge data for each of the deep ink and the light ink generated by the logical product means 2004 and 2008 may be sent to the corresponding processing liquid discharge head control means.

In the present embodiment, as a result of the above-described thinning-out by the mask, there are pixels to which ink is discharged, and pixels to which only ink is discharged and pixels to which ink and a processing liquid are discharged. As described above, when attention is paid to each pixel, the amount of the processing liquid may be large or small with respect to the ink. However, in the entire recording region where the pixels are aggregated, the amount of the color material given to the region is limited. An appropriate amount of treatment liquid will be applied.

(Embodiment 2) In the first embodiment, the processing liquid amount is changed for each of the dark ink and the light ink by setting the processing liquid extraction mask in which the thinning rate is determined for each of the dark ink and the light ink. Things.

In the present embodiment, the amount of the processing liquid is changed for each ink having a different color material concentration by using another configuration for extracting the processing liquid data. The apparatus and recording head applicable to this embodiment are the same as those of the first embodiment, and the data processing configuration is also the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, the processing liquid data generating means 2
As the processing liquid data generation method in 003 and 2006, for example, the same method as the data allocation method in the case of sequential multi-scan (hereinafter abbreviated to SMS) described in JP-A-5-330083 is used.

FIGS. 7A to 7C are views showing a data extraction method by SMS. FIG. 7A is a diagram showing quantized (binarized) print data for printing with ink for pixels arranged in the scanning direction of the print head. In the case where processing liquid data is extracted at a rate of 1/3 of the processing liquid applied to the pixels that eject ink of the print data, data is extracted so that the processing liquid is discharged at a ratio of one pixel to three pixels.

FIG. 7B is a diagram showing the processing liquid data obtained by this extraction.

As shown in the figure, the present extraction method is the same as that shown in FIG.
If the numbers 0, 1, and 2 are assigned in a three-pixel cycle with respect to the pixels for ejecting the ink of the print data shown in (a), the pixel assigned the number 0 is extracted as the pixel from which the processing liquid is ejected.
That is, data for discharging the processing liquid is assigned to the pixel.

According to this method, it is possible to easily change the amount of processing liquid to be extracted (given ratio) simply by changing the data extraction cycle. For example, FIG. 7C shows the extracted data when the treatment liquid application ratio is set to 3/4. This is shown in FIG.
In the recording data shown in FIG.
When 1, 2, and 3 are shaken, the ejection data of the processing liquid is assigned to the 0th, 1st, and 2nd pixels.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the extraction rate of the processing liquid of each ink, that is, the application ratio of the processing liquid to the ink in the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, by setting the extraction ratio in accordance with the type and concentration of the color material of the ink, ink containing a type of color material having a high density or hardly reacting with the processing liquid can be used. The extraction ratio of the processing liquid can be reduced for ink containing a color material of a type that has a high extraction ratio and low concentration or easily reacts with the processing liquid.

In the case of using a black ink or an ink having a particularly high density used for recording an image such as a character which requires particularly water resistance, it is more effective to apply the processing liquid by detecting the edge of the image. It is. More preferably, not only the processing liquid extraction cycle but also the presence or absence of edge detection is variably set for each type of ink density and color.

(Embodiment 3) In this embodiment, a plurality of masks for extracting processing liquid data are used by using a plurality of processing liquid sections (hereinafter also referred to as discharge heads) having different discharge amounts of the processing liquid. Without using it, an optimal amount of the processing liquid is applied to each of the dark ink and the light ink.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the recording head according to the present embodiment, and showing a surface on which each ejection port is provided.

As shown in FIG.
1K, dark cyan, dark magenta, dark yellow, light cyan,
Light magenta and light yellow ink discharge heads 2
1C, 21M, 21Y, 21LC, 21LM, 21L
Head 21S for ejecting processing liquid for Y, black ink
1. Head 21S for ejecting processing liquid for dark ink
2. Head 21S that discharges processing liquid for light ink
3 are provided.

Processing liquid discharge head 21 corresponding to black ink
S1 and processing liquid ejection head 21S2 corresponding to dark ink
Increases the ejection amount per ejection compared to the processing liquid ejection head 21S3 corresponding to light ink. For example, when the discharge amount of one ink is 20 ng, the discharge amount of the processing liquid corresponding to the black ink and the dark ink of another color is set to 20 ng.
g, the discharge amount of the processing liquid corresponding to the light ink is 10 ng.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the processing liquid data extraction processing of this embodiment. Although the drawing shows a set of dark and light inks of dark cyan and light cyan, the same configuration is used for inks of other colors.

In the same manner as in the first embodiment, ejection data of dark cyan ink to be ejected by the scan is generated with respect to the recording data 3001 to be printed with the binarized dark cyan dots (3).
002). The ejection data of the dark cyan ink generated by the dark cyan ejection data generating means 3002 is sent to the dark cyan head control means 3004 and also sent to the dark ink processing liquid ejection head control means 3003. Then, based on these data, the ejection is performed from the ejection section 21S2C corresponding to cyan of the dark cyan ink ejection head 21C and the cyan ink processing liquid ejection head, respectively. Data is generated in the same process for the light cyan ink, and the light emitting section 21S3 of the light ink discharge head 21LC and the light ink processing liquid discharge head corresponding to cyan.
Discharge is performed from C.

In the above configuration, the method of generating the processing liquid ejection data is the same for dark ink dots and light ink dots, but the processing liquid ejection amount is large in the processing ink ejection head for dark ink, As a result, a sufficiently large amount of processing liquid can be applied to dark ink, and a minimum necessary amount of processing liquid can be applied to light ink.

The difference in the discharge amount of the processing liquid discharge head can be attained, for example, by changing the size of the formed discharge port or the size of the heater.

In the above description, the processing liquid ejection data is not thinned out with respect to the ink data, but may be thinned out at a predetermined ratio. At this time, since the single discharge amount of the processing liquid for each of the dark and light inks is optimized for each ink concentration, it is not necessary to change the extraction ratio of the processing liquid data for each of the dark and light inks.

Further, in the above example, a plurality of processing liquid discharge heads having different discharge amounts are provided. However, a plurality of heaters are provided corresponding to one discharge port, and one discharge head is selected by selecting a heater to be driven. May be used which can change the discharge amount. In any case, the effect of the present invention can be obtained by increasing the discharge amount of the processing liquid for the dark ink and decreasing the discharge amount of the processing liquid for the light ink.

(Embodiment 4) In Embodiment 1 described above, the treatment liquid extraction masks for the dark ink and the light ink are provided to optimize the treatment liquid application amount in a certain wide area. As described above, the amount of the processing liquid is not always the optimum when viewed from each pixel. Depending on the relationship between the print data and the mask, for example, the processing liquid may be applied to the pixel to which one drop of light ink is applied, but the processing liquid may not be applied to the pixel of the secondary color of dark ink.
This is because when the print data is quantized by error diffusion or the like, it is not possible to control in advance which pixel is formed with which ink because the print data uses the ink. Dark ink and black ink may be applied, and a combination of light ink and dark ink, or a combination of light ink and black ink may be used. In the case of the emphasis recording, two or more dots of the same color may be given.

In this embodiment, based on the quantized print data of each color ink, the processing liquid amount is determined from the density value corresponding to the type and number of ink applied to each pixel, and the optimal amount is determined for each pixel. It is possible to apply an appropriate amount of the processing liquid.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the processing liquid amount determination processing of this embodiment.

First, print data is quantized by a known method, and binary data is obtained for each of black, dark cyan, dark magenta, dark yellow, light cyan, light magenta, and light yellow inks (S4002). Then, based on the quantized data, information on which color ink is applied to the pixel of interest, which is the target of this processing, and the amount of the color material contained in the ink, A represented density value is calculated (S4003). Then, based on this density value, the application amount of the processing liquid is determined by referring to a predetermined threshold table (S
4004). The same processing as described above is repeated for all the pixels involved in one scan (S4005, S4006).

Next, the above-described density value determination processing (S4
003) and the process of determining the amount of treatment liquid to be applied (S4004).

In the present embodiment, the discharge amount per discharge is 30 ng for black ink, and 19 ng for color ink of each density.
ng and the processing solution are 19 ng. The ratio of the dye concentration between the dark ink and the light ink is 4: 1. From the above points, even the same one drop of ink per one ejection is weighted according to the amount of color material included. That is, as a density value (index of density) of a unit corresponding to the amount of the color material included in each ink, black ink is “2” per drop, dark ink is “1”, and light ink is “0.25”. I do. Then, from the binary data by quantization, the total of the unit density values can be determined as the density value of the pixel by the combination of the respective inks applied to the pixel.

FIG. 12 (a) is a diagram schematically showing the contents of a threshold table showing the correspondence between the concentration value and the amount of the processing solution. FIG. 12 (b) shows the contents of the table for easy understanding. Is shown in a graph. The tables shown in these figures are referred to by the density values determined above. For example, when the density value of a certain pixel is a value between 0 and 0.74, the processing liquid amount of that pixel is zero. That is, the processing liquid is not applied to this pixel. When the density value is between 0.75 and 1.5, one drop of the processing liquid is applied.

FIGS. 13A and 13B are diagrams schematically showing the above-described processing and the recording dots obtained based thereon.

FIG. 13A shows an example in which quantized recording data gives one drop of dark cyan and one drop of light magenta to a pixel to be processed. In this case, since the above-described density value of the dark ink is 1 and that of the light ink is 0.25, the density value of this pixel is 1.25. FIG. 12A and FIG.
Referring to the table shown in (b), the processing liquid amount 1 is obtained. As a result, one drop of the processing liquid is applied to this pixel. In the example shown in FIG. 13B, one drop of black ink, one drop of dark yellow ink, and one drop of light magenta ink are applied to the pixels to be processed. Thus, the density value is 3.25, which is the sum of 2 for black ink, 1 for dark ink, and 0.25 for light ink. Then, according to this density value, FIG.
The processing liquid amount 3 is obtained by referring to the table shown in FIG.

As can be seen from the above description and the table shown in FIG. 12, a large amount of high-density ink is applied per pixel, and as a result, the amount of color material applied per pixel is large. In the example as shown in FIG. 13B, the amount of the processing liquid can be applied sufficiently large, the amount of the ink is small, and the amount of the coloring material applied per pixel is small.
In the example shown in (b), the amount of the processing liquid can be reduced.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the density value and the processing liquid amount for all combinations of the number of drops to which black dots, dark dots and light dots can be given, and shows the contents of a table used in the present embodiment. Things. The largest number of ink droplets to be applied is a total of seven droplets of black ink + dark cyan, dark magenta and dark yellow ink + light cyan, light magenta and light yellow ink. of course,
Not all combinations are used in various processes such as color processing. Further, the case where the same color ink is ejected to the same pixel a plurality of times, such as in the emphasis recording mode, is excluded. Also in the case of the emphasized printing mode, calculating the density value from the amount and type of ink applied to each pixel and determining the amount of processing liquid to be applied is the same.

In this embodiment, the processing liquid is ejected by simultaneous scanning with ink of an arbitrary color. In addition, when a sufficient amount of the processing liquid cannot be applied by scanning at the same time as the ink due to the arrangement of the heads and the number of passes of the multi-pass, a scan for applying only the processing liquid may be provided. The ejection may be performed in the return scan.

(Embodiment 5) In the configuration of Embodiment 4, for example, when an image is composed of only primary colors of light ink,
As is clear from FIG. 14 and the like, the density value obtained for each pixel is 0.25, and all the pixels are below the threshold, so that no processing liquid is applied. In order to prevent such a situation and obtain a predetermined improvement in water resistance and printability by applying a processing liquid, the simplest method is to lower the threshold. However, if the threshold is set so that the processing liquid is always applied to the pixel from which one light ink droplet is ejected, the processing liquid becomes too large, and the object of the present invention cannot be achieved.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, after the amount of the processing solution is determined based on the density value obtained for each pixel, the difference between the density value and the value associated with the determined processing solution amount is regarded as an error, and the peripheral pixels are determined as errors. Is performed. The “value associated with the determined processing liquid amount” in the present embodiment corresponds to the number of processing liquid droplets provided. That is, if the processing liquid amount applied to the target pixel is two drops, the difference between the density value of the target pixel and 2 is an error. As a result, it becomes possible to apply an appropriate amount of the processing liquid to a certain spread area.

FIG. 15A shows an image composed of four pixels in the vertical direction and four pixels in the horizontal direction as a fixed area for the sake of convenience of explanation.
This indicates that a drop is applied. In this case, when the density value for determining the processing liquid amount is obtained as in the above-described fourth embodiment, the density value of all the pixels is 0.25 as shown in FIG. 15B.

A known error diffusion process used for quantization is performed on this density value. Here, "error"
This is the difference between the value corresponding to the applied treatment liquid amount and its concentration value. FIG. 15C is a diagram showing the density value of each changed pixel, which is the result of the error diffusion processing. In the present embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, the error is distributed to the two pixels adjacent to the right and bottom, about 1/2 each, as shown in FIG. as a result,
The density value is 0.75 which is the threshold of the processing liquid discharge.
Is greater than 3 pixels as shown in FIG.
The processing liquid is applied to these three pixels. As described above, the pixels to which the processing liquid is applied are spread over the entire area, thereby making it possible to insolubilize the color material of the ink as a whole.

The setting of the threshold value, the setting method of the density value, and the distribution of the error are, of course, not limited to this example. Optimal method can be set according to the dye concentration and ejection amount of ink, the type of processing liquid, the type of recording medium, etc.
At this time, it should be noted that the setting is made so that the threshold for discharging one droplet of the processing liquid is not exceeded only by the diffused error. Otherwise, due to the diffused error,
This is because there is a possibility that the processing liquid is applied to pixels to which no ink is ejected.

[0086]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The amount of the processing liquid to be discharged is varied according to the amount or type of the color material of each ink discharged from the recording head to the recording material. In this case, for example, the amount of the color material is larger for a higher density ink. Since the amount of the processing liquid is larger than the amount of the processing liquid for the ink having a lower density than the amount of the color material is smaller, the amount of the coloring material and the amount of the processing liquid can be properly and properly corresponded in the predetermined action of the processing liquid on the color material. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the amounts of the processing liquid and the ink discharged onto the recording material from being too large or too small.

As a result, it is possible to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing an increase in running cost due to an increase in the amount of processing liquid used and an image deterioration due to cockling of a recording medium such as paper.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a processing liquid data generation process according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a schematic configuration of the inkjet printer according to the first embodiment.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are a perspective view of a recording head unit used in the ink jet printer shown in FIG. 2 and a diagram schematically showing a discharge port arrangement portion, respectively.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram mainly showing a control configuration of the printer.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of a processing liquid data generation process according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating processing liquid data extraction master data used in the above processing.

FIGS. 7A to 7C are diagrams for explaining processing liquid data generation processing by SMS according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a processing liquid data extraction ratio for each ink in the above processing.

FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically showing a discharge port arrangement portion in a recording head unit used in an ink jet printer according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a processing liquid data generation process according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a processing liquid amount determination process according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 12A and 12B are diagrams illustrating the contents of an example of a table including a relationship between a concentration value and a processing liquid amount used in the processing liquid amount determination processing according to the fourth embodiment.

FIGS. 13A and 13B are diagrams illustrating two examples of a method of determining the processing liquid amount.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing all combinations of a relationship between a density value and a processing liquid amount in the table in the fourth embodiment.

FIGS. 15A to 15D are diagrams illustrating a process of determining a processing liquid amount based on image data according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining a mode of error diffusion used in processing in the fifth embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20S Processing liquid tank 20K Black ink tank 20C Dark cyan ink tank 20M Dark magenta ink tank 20Y Dark yellow ink tank 20LC Light cyan ink tank 20LM Light magenta ink tank 20LY Light yellow ink tank 21S Processing liquid discharge Unit 21K Black ink discharge unit 21C Dark cyan ink discharge unit 21M Dark magenta ink discharge unit 21Y Dark yellow ink discharge unit 21LC Light cyan ink discharge unit 21LM Light magenta ink discharge unit 21LY Light yellow ink discharge unit 21S1 Processing liquid discharge head for black ink 21S2 Processing liquid discharge head for dark ink 21S3 Processing liquid discharge head for light ink 100 Inkjet printer 101 Carriage 103 Recording head unit 401 Reception buffer 402 Control unit 4 3 memory unit 404 mechanical control unit 405 mechanical portion 406 sensor / SW control portion 407 sensor / SW unit 408 display element control unit 409 a display element unit 410 head control unit

Claims (23)

[Claims] 1. A recording head for ejecting a plurality of inks having different amounts or types of coloring materials, and a process of causing a predetermined action on the coloring materials of the inks by contacting each of the plurality of inks. In an ink jet recording method for performing recording by discharging ink and a processing liquid onto a recording material using a recording head that discharges a liquid, the amount or type of the color material of each ink discharged from the recording head onto the recording material is determined. An ink jet recording method characterized in that the amount of the processing liquid to be discharged is varied according to the amount. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of inks having different amounts of the color material include a plurality of inks of the same color and different densities due to the different amounts of the color material, and the processing liquid amount for the higher density ink is increased 2. The ink jet recording method according to claim 1, wherein the amount of the treatment liquid is larger than the amount of the treatment liquid for the low ink. 3. A method of thinning out the ejection data of a plurality of inks having different densities by using a mask to generate different amounts of processing liquids corresponding to the respective ejection data, and by using different masks in the generation. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the amount of the processing liquid for the higher concentration ink and the amount of the processing liquid for the lower concentration ink are changed.
3. The ink jet recording method according to item 1. 4. A recording ratio of a processing liquid generated by thinning using a mask corresponding to a higher density ink is higher than a recording ratio of a processing liquid generated by thinning using a mask corresponding to a lower density ink. The inkjet recording method according to claim 3, wherein: 5. A recording head comprising: a processing liquid discharge head having a larger discharge amount at one time; and a processing liquid discharge head having a smaller discharge amount at one time. 3. The ink jet recording method according to claim 2, wherein a larger processing liquid discharging head is used, and a processing liquid discharging head which discharges a smaller amount of ink having a lower density is used. 6. A recording liquid discharge head capable of changing a single discharge amount is used, and a higher discharge amount of the processing liquid is discharged for a higher density ink. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein a smaller amount of the processing liquid is ejected to the ink having a lower ink ejection amount.
3. The ink jet recording method according to item 1. 7. A method in which ejection data of a plurality of inks of different types of color materials is thinned using a mask to generate different amounts of processing liquids corresponding to the respective ejection data. By letting
2. The ink jet recording method according to claim 1, wherein the amount of the processing liquid is changed for each type of color material. 8. The ink jet recording method according to claim 7, wherein the recording ratio of the processing liquid generated by thinning using a mask differs for each type of color material. 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of processing liquid discharge heads having different discharge amounts at one time are used as the recording heads, and the processing liquid discharge heads used are different for each type of color material. Ink jet recording method. 10. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: weighting a color material amount of each of the plurality of inks according to an amount and a type of the color material of each of the plurality of inks; 2. The ink jet recording method according to claim 1, wherein a parameter indicating a material amount is calculated, and a processing liquid amount used for the recording is determined according to the parameter. 11. The ink jet recording method according to claim 1, wherein the treatment liquid performs, as the predetermined action, an action of insolubilizing or aggregating a color material of the ink. 12. A recording head for ejecting a plurality of inks having different amounts or types of coloring materials, and a process of causing a predetermined action on the coloring materials of the inks by contacting each of the plurality of inks. In an ink jet recording apparatus that uses a recording head that discharges liquid and discharges ink and a processing liquid onto a recording material to perform recording, according to the amount or type of color material of each ink that is discharged from the recording head to the recording material An ink jet recording apparatus characterized in that the amount of the processing liquid to be discharged is varied. 13. A plurality of inks having different amounts of the color material, a plurality of inks of the same color having different densities due to the different amounts of the color material are used, and the processing liquid amount for the higher density ink is increased. 13. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the processing liquid amount is set to be larger than the processing liquid amount for the low ink. 14. A thinning process using a mask is performed on ejection data of a plurality of inks having different densities, thereby generating different amounts of the corresponding processing liquids.
14. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the amount of the processing liquid for the higher density ink and the amount of the processing liquid for the lower density ink are changed by changing the mask in the generation. 15. A recording ratio of a processing liquid generated by thinning using a mask corresponding to a higher density ink is higher than a recording ratio of a processing liquid generated by thinning using a mask corresponding to a lower density ink. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 14, wherein: 16. A recording head comprising: a processing liquid discharge head having a larger discharge amount at one time; and a processing liquid discharge head having a smaller discharge amount at a time. 14. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 13, wherein a larger processing liquid discharge head is used, and a processing liquid discharge head which discharges a smaller amount of ink having a lower density is used. 17. A processing liquid discharge head capable of changing a single discharge amount is used as a recording head, and a larger processing liquid discharge amount is discharged for higher density ink. 14. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 13, wherein a smaller amount of the processing liquid is ejected with respect to the low ink. 18. A method for thinning out ejection data of a plurality of inks of different types of color materials using a mask, thereby generating different amounts of the corresponding processing liquids. 13. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the amount of the processing liquid is changed for each type of the coloring material. 19. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the recording ratio of the processing liquid generated by the thinning using the mask is different for each type of color material. 20. The recording head according to claim 12, wherein a plurality of processing liquid discharge heads having different discharge amounts at one time are used as the recording heads, and the processing liquid discharge head used for each type of color material is different. Ink jet recording device. 21. Weighting is performed on the amount of color material for each of the plurality of inks in accordance with the amount and type of the color material of each of the plurality of inks, and the color of the print is determined by a combination of inks used for the print from print data. 13. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 12, wherein a parameter indicating a material amount is calculated, and a processing liquid amount used for the recording is determined according to the parameter. 22. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the processing liquid performs, as the predetermined action, an action of insolubilizing or aggregating a color material of the ink. 23. The recording head according to claim 12, wherein the recording head uses thermal energy to generate bubbles in the ink, and discharges the ink or the processing liquid by the pressure of the bubbles. Ink jet recording device.