JP3496018B2 - Inkjet printing method and inkjet printing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inkjet printing method and a printing apparatus capable of obtaining a high-quality image on a material to be printed, and more specifically, to a printing ink and a coloring material in the printing ink on the material to be printed. The present invention relates to an inkjet printing method, a printing apparatus, and a printed matter that eject a printability improving liquid that insolubilizes or agglomerates.

The present invention can be applied to all devices using paper, cloth, leather, non-woven fabric, OHP paper and the like, as well as printed materials such as metal. Specific applicable equipment includes office equipment such as printers, copying machines, and facsimiles, and industrial production equipment.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, ink jet printing methods are
Low noise, low running cost, easy to downsize the device,
It is used in printers, copiers, etc. because it can be easily colorized.

However, when an image is obtained on a printing material called so-called plain paper by these printing apparatuses to which the ink jet printing method is applied, the water resistance of the image is insufficient, or when a color image is obtained. In contrast, it was not possible to achieve both a high-density image with no feathering and an image with no intercolor bleeding, and a color image with good image fastness and good quality could not be obtained.

As a method of improving the water resistance of an image, an ink in which a coloring material contained in the ink has water resistance has been put into practical use in recent years. However, its water resistance is still inadequate, and since it is an ink that is difficult to dissolve in water after drying in principle, it is easy for nozzle clogging of the print head to occur, and to prevent this, the device configuration becomes complicated. It may happen.

In addition, many techniques have been disclosed in the past for improving the robustness of printed materials. JP-A-53-24
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 486 discloses a technique in which a dye is laked and fixed by post-treating the dye in order to enhance the wet fastness of the dye.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 54-43733 discloses a method of printing using an ink jet printing method by using two or more components which increase the film-forming density when they come into contact with each other at room temperature or when heated. A printed matter is obtained in which a film is firmly adhered to each other by contacting each component on the printing material.

Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 55-150396 also discloses a method of applying a water-resistant material for forming a lake with a dye after printing an aqueous dye ink.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 58-128862 discloses an ink jet printing method in which an image position to be recorded is identified in advance and a print ink and a printability improving liquid are overlaid and printed with the printability improving liquid. A printing method that forms an image prior to the ink, a printing method that draws the printability improving liquid on top of the previously drawn print ink, or a printing method that draws the print ink on top of the previously drawn printability improving liquid Further, a printing method is disclosed in which a printability improving liquid is overlaid and drawn.

It is known that by separately applying the printability improving liquid and the print ink, the effects such as improvement of light resistance, water resistance, image density, and saturation are obtained.

[0011]

However, in the above publication, there is provided a recovery means, a head structure, a tank structure, which is peculiar to an ink jet printing apparatus, for maintaining ejection reliability.
It does not disclose a print mode or the like for improving the quality of a print image.

In the application of the printing ink and the printing property improving liquid onto the material to be printed as shown in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-128862, each printing pixel is different if the order of driving is different. Show the property.

Spreading of the print ink and the printability improving liquid onto the paper surface is schematically shown in FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b).
FIG. 1A shows a case where the printability improving liquid is injected prior to the print ink. In this case, the coloring matters such as dyes in the print ink are retained on the surface of the paper surface in the depth direction, so that the color development of the print ink is improved, and the dot shape forms a circular dot with less feathering. it is conceivable that. On the other hand, since the print ink lands on the material to be printed and coagulates with the printability improving liquid at the same time, the dye component in the print ink does not penetrate into the material to be printed, and the dot size tends to be small.

FIG. 1B shows the case where the printability improving liquid is superposed on the previously printed printing ink, which is the opposite of the case shown in FIG. 1A. When the print ink is first ejected, the water resistance of the print ink is higher than when the printability improving liquid is not applied, but the print ink first penetrates into the interior of the paper in the depth direction. Color development does not change much.

Further, if the order of depositing the print ink and the printability improving liquid is different, the hue may be different between the two. It is considered that even if the same amount of print ink is used, the distance between pigment components such as dyes on the printing material differs depending on the way the ink agglomerates.

As described above, the image formed differs depending on the difference in the order in which the print ink and the printability improving liquid are ejected.

Further, the color development, hue, dot shape, etc. differ depending on at which position in the depth direction of the paper surface the print ink and the printability improving liquid are mixed. Such a state occurs when the time interval from the landing of the printability improving liquid to the landing of the printing ink varies depending on the pixel, but this also greatly affects the formed image.

The influence of these properties on the image in the conventional ink jet printing system will be described below.

1) A printing method for forming an image prior to a printing ink with the printing property improving liquid disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-128862, and the printing ink is superposed on the previously drawn printing property improving liquid. When recording is carried out by a printing method in which the printability improving liquid is drawn over and the printability improving liquid is overlaid, the dot diameter tends to be smaller than when the printability improving liquid is not used. If you have two print modes, one that uses printability improving liquid and one that does not use printability improving liquid, the conventional discharge amount design without printability improving liquid was used and printability improving liquid was used. When you print it, the image becomes streaky.

2) In the case of conventional monochrome printing such as Bk,
Although reciprocal printing was performed for the purpose of high-speed printing, when printing is done with the printability improving liquid head and print liquid head side by side, the printability improving liquid and print ink are printed in the forward and backward directions. Since the order of driving into the material is different, band unevenness (color unevenness, density unevenness, streak unevenness) of the head width, which has not occurred in the past, occurs.

3) FIGS. 2 (a), 2 (b) and 2
(C) is an ideal head, 1 is a head, 2 is an ejection nozzle, and 3 is an ejected ink droplet. Figure 2
FIG. 2A shows how ink droplets are ejected from the head, FIG.
FIG. 2B shows a state of dots formed on the printing material, and FIG. 2C shows a distribution of the ink ejection density within the paper surface. Similarly, FIG. 3 (a), FIG. 3 (b) and FIG.
(C) shows the case of an actual head. In the actual head, since the nozzle distribution (ejection amount distribution, ejection direction) due to manufacturing variation occurs in the process of forming nozzles, the print ink density on the printing material differs, and density unevenness and stripes appear on the image. become. Similarly, when the printability-improving liquid is applied, a density difference of the printability-improving liquid on the printed material occurs, and the reaction amount with the print ink varies from nozzle to nozzle, resulting in uneven density, uneven color, or streaks on the image. Occur.

4) In a conventional head unit in which heads of respective colors for color are combined, it is a manufacturing variation that the registration between the heads is accurately adjusted by the positioning method between the heads (though it depends on the configuration of the head and the main body). It is difficult for some reasons. For this reason, some deviation is allowed within a range that does not affect the image. Due to the misregistration between the printability improving liquid and the print ink between the heads, the order of printing and the spacing between the printing ink and the printing property improving liquid are changed, resulting in density unevenness, color unevenness, and streaks on the image.

5) In the printing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-128862, in which the printing ink is drawn on the printing property improving liquid, the coloring property of the printing ink is not so improved. In addition, the feathering of the dot shape is not improved.

[0024]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is directed to a printing method for forming an image with a printability improving liquid prior to a printing ink, and a printing ink previously drawn. A print method in which the printability improving liquid is drawn on top of the other, or a print method in which the print ink is drawn on the printability improving liquid drawn above and the printability improving liquid is drawn on top It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing method that takes into consideration the problem that the method of applying the printing ink and the printing property improving liquid has not been sufficiently improved.

Further, an object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printing method and apparatus capable of obtaining a printed image having high print density, no print unevenness, and excellent weather resistance such as water resistance and light resistance, that is, image storability. To provide.

[0026]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention for solving the above problems is as follows.

That is, the inkjet printing method according to the present invention includes an ink ejecting portion that ejects an ink containing a coloring material and a liquid ejecting portion that ejects a printability improving liquid that insolubilizes or aggregates the coloring material in the ink. An inkjet printing method for printing an image on a print medium by using a scanning step of scanning a predetermined area on a print medium with an ink ejecting section and a liquid ejecting section a plurality of times, and scanning and scanning in the scanning step. When transporting the print medium in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction,
An image corresponding to a predetermined area is formed by carrying a carrying step of carrying the print medium by an amount equal to the width of the predetermined area in the carrying direction, and ejecting the ink and the printability improving liquid onto the predetermined area in the plurality of scans. And a printing step for completing the printing, wherein in the printing step, the printability improving liquid is thinned out and ejected to the ejected ink, and the ink ejected in advance as an image corresponding to a predetermined area is formed. A first pixel formed by ejecting the printability improving liquid so as to at least partially overlap with a first pixel formed by ejecting ink so as to at least partially overlap with the previously ejected printability improving liquid. An image including the second pixel and the third pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid is printed. It is characterized in. Another inkjet printing method according to the present invention prints using an ink ejection unit that ejects an ink containing a coloring material and a liquid ejection unit that ejects a printability improving liquid that insolubilizes or aggregates the coloring material in the ink. An inkjet printing method for printing an image on a medium, comprising: a scanning step in which a predetermined area on a print medium is scanned with an ink ejecting section and a liquid ejecting section a plurality of times; and between scanning in the scanning step. A carrying step of carrying the print medium by an amount equal to the width of the predetermined region in the carrying direction when carrying the print medium in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction;
A printing step of printing an image including the pixels, the second pixels, and the third pixels in a predetermined region by a plurality of scans, and the first pixel is configured to discharge the ejected ink after the ejection of the ink. Is a pixel formed by ejecting the printability improving liquid so that at least a part thereof overlaps, and the second pixel is an ink so that at least a part thereof overlaps with the ejected print improving liquid after the ejection of the printability improving liquid. The third pixel is a pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid. Yet another inkjet printing method according to the present invention is an ink jetting section for jetting ink, and printability for improving at least one property of water resistance, light resistance, density and saturation of an image formed by the ink. An ink jet printing method for printing an image on a print medium using a liquid ejecting section for ejecting an improvement liquid, the scanning step of scanning the ink ejecting section and the liquid ejecting section a plurality of times with respect to a predetermined region on the print medium. A conveyance step of conveying the print medium by an amount equal to the width of the predetermined area in the conveyance direction when the print medium is conveyed in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction between the scans in the scanning step, By ejecting the ink and the printability improving liquid onto a predetermined area during scanning, an image corresponding to the predetermined area is formed. And a printing step for completing the printing, and in the printing step, the printability improving liquid is thinned out and ejected with respect to the ejected ink, and as an image corresponding to a predetermined region, at least the ink ejected earlier is ejected. A first pixel formed by ejecting the printability improving liquid so as to partially overlap with a second pixel formed by ejecting ink so as to at least partially overlap the previously discharged printability improving liquid. And an image including the third pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid. Another ink jet printing method according to the present invention is an ink jetting section for jetting ink, and at least one property of water resistance, light fastness, density and saturation of an image formed by the ink is improved to improve printability. An ink jet printing method for printing an image on a print medium using a liquid ejecting section for ejecting a liquid, wherein a scanning step of scanning a predetermined area on the print medium with the ink ejecting section and the liquid ejecting section a plurality of times. A conveyance step of conveying the print medium by an amount equal to the width of the predetermined region in the conveyance direction when the print medium is conveyed by a predetermined amount in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction between the scans in the scanning step. A printing step of printing an image including the first pixel, the second pixel, and the third pixel in a predetermined area by scanning a plurality of times. , The first pixel,
The second pixel is a pixel formed by ejecting the printability improving liquid so that at least a part of the ejected ink overlaps with the ejected ink, and the second pixel is ejected after ejecting the printability improving liquid. The third pixel is a pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid, which is a pixel formed by ejecting ink so that at least a part thereof overlaps with the print improving liquid. It is characterized by being. The inkjet printing apparatus according to the present invention uses an ink ejection unit that ejects an ink containing a coloring material and a liquid ejection unit that ejects a printability improving liquid that insolubilizes or aggregates the coloring material in the ink onto a print medium. An inkjet printing apparatus for printing an image on a print medium, comprising: a scanning unit configured to scan a predetermined region on a print medium with an ink ejecting unit and a liquid ejecting unit a plurality of times; Conveying means for conveying the recording medium by an amount equal to the width in the conveying direction of the predetermined area when conveying in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction, and ink and printability improving liquid for the predetermined area in the plurality of scans. And a print control unit that completes printing of an image corresponding to a predetermined area by ejecting The step ejects the printability-improving liquid by thinning out the ejected ink, and ejects the printability-improving liquid as an image corresponding to a predetermined region so as to at least partially overlap the ink ejected previously. And the second pixel formed by ejecting ink so that at least a part of the first pixel formed by the above process and the previously ejected printability improving liquid and the printability improving liquid are ejected. Instead, an image including a third pixel formed by ejecting only ink is printed. Another ink jet printing apparatus according to the present invention is an ink ejecting unit that ejects ink, and at least one property of water resistance, light resistance, density, and saturation of an image formed by the ink is improved to improve printability. An inkjet printing apparatus that prints an image on a print medium using a liquid ejecting unit that ejects liquid, and a scanning unit that scans the ink ejecting unit and the liquid ejecting unit multiple times with respect to a predetermined region on the print medium. In between the scanning by the scanning means, when the print medium is transported in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction, the transport means transports the print medium by an amount equal to the width of the predetermined region in the transport direction, and the plurality of times. By ejecting the ink and the printability improving liquid onto a predetermined area during scanning, the image And a print control unit for completing the printing, the print control unit thins and ejects the printability improving liquid on the ejected ink, and ejects the previously ejected ink as an image corresponding to a predetermined region. And a first pixel formed by ejecting the printability-improving liquid so that at least a part thereof overlaps the first pixel, and an ink is ejected so as to at least partially overlap the previously-imprinted printability-improving liquid. An image including the second pixel and the third pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid is printed.

In the present invention, the improvement of printability is to improve image quality such as density, saturation, sharpness of edge portion, dot diameter and the like, and to improve ink fixability.
Improving weather resistance such as water resistance and light resistance, that is, image storability.

The printability-improving liquid does not necessarily have to be ejected separately from the ink, and may be ejected in a state of being mixed with inks which do not interact with the printability-improving liquids of a plurality of colors of ink. Good.

The term “substantially adjacent” in the present invention includes such a case, even if pixels are separated from each other when they are hit with ink, as long as at least a part thereof is adjacent to the medium due to the permeation of the liquid. .

In the present invention, the ejection portion means an ejection nozzle array for ink or printability improving liquid. Further, the head chip is a chip in which a discharge nozzle group is formed on a single substrate of this discharge portion, and a head unit is configured by combining a plurality of these head chips.

Further, the ejection portion is not necessarily formed on one head chip as described above, but also includes the case formed on different chips.

Further, the ink jet head of the present invention refers to a so-called ink jet printing apparatus gathering section, which may be integrated with the apparatus or may be a separate body. In the case of a separate body, the above head unit is included, and the number of head chips in this case is not particularly limited.

In the serial type color ink jet head of the present invention, the arrangement direction of the heads of each color may be a horizontal arrangement parallel to the main scanning direction of the head, or a vertical arrangement perpendicular to the main scanning direction. Good.

The above printing method can provide an image having both image uniformity and color development.

That is, after printing the colored ink on the printing material at least once, the printing property improving liquid is applied onto the colored ink printing area at least once, and the image to which the printing property improving liquid is applied is applied. There is a pixel in which the printability improving liquid is applied to the colored ink in the immediate vicinity of a pixel in which the colorant ink is applied to the printability improving liquid having a low coverage rate by printing the area with the colored ink at least once more. In addition, since the coverage can be averaged as a whole, it is possible to achieve a print having both image uniformity and color development.

Further, after applying the printability improving liquid at least once or more and then printing with the colored ink at least once or more, the printability improving liquid is applied at least once or more and then at least once. The same effect can be obtained by printing with the colored ink as described above.

In ink-jet printing using both the printability improving liquid and the colored ink, the pixels on which the colored ink lands at least once after the printability improving liquid, and the printability improving liquid lands on the colored ink at least once or more. Pixels where the colored ink has landed at least once or more, and then the printability improving liquid has landed at least once more, and then the color ink has landed at least once more, and the printability improving liquid has landed at least once more. After that, forming an image by mixing at least two kinds of pixels out of four kinds of pixels in which the color ink is landed at least once and the printability improving liquid is landed at least once. This makes it possible to form a macroscopically uniform image while mixing pixels of different characteristics microscopically. That.

Further, the time T from the printability improving liquid landing on the printing material to the print ink landing is within the first specific time for the pixel A, and the same time T is for the first specific time. By mixing the pixels B of the second specific time or longer on the print material, it is possible to form a macroscopically uniform image while mixing pixels of different characteristics microscopically.

In the printing method of the present invention, it is preferable that an image is formed by at least the pixel whose color ink is landed last, and such a pixel needs to exist at least predominantly in the image.

Here, the printability improving liquid may include a liquid which insolubilizes the dye in the ink, a liquid which causes dispersion destruction of the pigment in the ink, a printability improving liquid and the like. Here, insolubilization means that the anionic group contained in the dye in the ink and the cationic group of the cationic substance contained in the printability improving liquid cause an ionic interaction to cause an ionic bond, and This is a phenomenon in which a dye that has been uniformly dissolved separates from the solution. In the present invention, even if not all the dyes in the ink are insolubilized, the effects of suppressing color bleeding, improving the color developability, improving the character quality, and improving the fixability as described in the present invention can be obtained. Further, the term “aggregate” is used in the same meaning as insolubilization when the colorant used in the ink is a water-soluble dye having an anionic group. When the colorant used in the ink is a pigment, the pigment dispersant or the surface of the pigment and the cationic group of the cationic substance contained in the printability improving liquid cause an ionic interaction to disperse the pigment. This includes destruction and enlarging the pigment particle size. Normal,
The viscosity of the ink increases with the aggregation described above. In the present invention, even if not all the pigments or pigment dispersants in the ink are aggregated, the effects of suppressing color bleeding, improving color developability, improving character quality, and improving fixability as described in the present invention can be obtained. can get.

According to the present invention, it is possible to form an image having both image uniformity and color development. Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an inkjet printing method and apparatus capable of obtaining a print image having a high print density, no unevenness, and weather resistance such as water resistance and light resistance, that is, good image storability. it can. Further, according to the present invention, a printed matter having improved weather resistance such as water resistance and light resistance, that is, image storability, good feathering and intercolor bleeding, good color development, and high print density. A printed matter having a high quality image can be obtained.

[0043]

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

(First Embodiment) FIG. 4 shows a printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is monochrome (Bk)
It is an example of a printing method using the print ink and the printability improving liquid (S). Here, the improvement of the printability by the printability-improving liquid means that the density, the saturation, the sharpness degree of the edge portion, the image quality such as the dot diameter, the ink fixability, and the water resistance, It includes improving weather resistance such as light resistance, that is, image storability.

A Bk head 1001 and an S head 1002 for the printability improving liquid are mounted on a carriage (not shown). In the example shown in the figure, when printing is performed when the head corresponding to the odd-numbered scan moves from left to right (forward direction), the printability-improving liquid-> Bk ink is applied to the print material in this order. Further, in printing when the head corresponding to the even-numbered scan moves from right to left (backward direction), ink is printed on the print material in the order of ink → printability improving liquid.

First, with respect to the first image area, the original image data of Bk is staggered by the first scan (forward direction) using the nozzles of the print area 1 corresponding to the lower half of the head nozzle width L. Prints thinned out. The printability improving liquid data is printed during the same scan Bk
It is the same as the data of. After printing the first image area, the printing material is fed by a width of L / 2. The second scan (reverse direction) complements the image formed by the first scan to thin the image in an inverse zigzag manner and print. The first image area is printed in the print area 2 (upper half) of the print head, and the second image area is printed in the print area 1 (lower half) of the print head. At this point, the first image area portion is printed in such a manner that image data is thinned out in an inverted zigzag pattern in the order of printability improving liquid → Bk ink on the print pixels that have not been printed in the first scan, and all the images are printed. Data printing is complete. At this time, in the first image area, the printability improving liquid in a zigzag pattern → Bk ink, B in an inverted zigzag pattern.
k ink → printability improving liquid landing order, and half of the image data in the second image area is in an inverted zigzag pattern Bk ink →
The printability improving liquid is printed in the order of landing.

After the print material is fed by L / 2 width, in the third scan (outward direction), the image data is thinned out in a zigzag manner as in the first scan, and the second image area is halved. With the nozzle, the third image area is printed with the lower half nozzle. Printing of the second image area is completed by this third scanning. Here, the second image area is printed in reverse zigzag in the print pixels in the order of landing of the Bk ink → printability improving liquid, and in a complementary fashion in the order of landing of the printability improving liquid → Bk ink. . By repeating the same process thereafter, the image areas on the print material divided into the print head L / 2 width are sequentially printed, and the printing of all print data is completed.

The effects of this embodiment will be described below.

A comparison between the method of this embodiment and a general printing method is shown in FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b). Note that FIG.
In (a) and (b), an example of the Bk ink and the printability improving liquid is shown with a four-nozzle head configuration for easy understanding. The print pixel 1101 is a pixel that prints when the head unit moves from left to right in the forward direction, and is printed on the print material in the order of the printability improving liquid (S) → ink (K). The print pixel 1102 is right to left. Pixels are printed in the order of ink (K)-> printability improving liquid (S) when printed in the backward direction of moving to. In a general printing method, 1101 and 1102 are bands for each nozzle width in one-pass reciprocal printing, and the print pixels 1101 are concentrated, so that the coverage ratio in that area is reduced and streaks are conspicuous ( Figure 5
(See (a)). On the other hand, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5B, the pixels are arranged in a staggered pattern and an inverted zigzag pattern.
It is necessary to print the same area for two or more scans, but both are mixed and the coverage is low and the printability improving liquid → The print ink → printability improving liquid pixel is in the immediate vicinity of the print ink pixel. The coverage as a whole is averaged to prevent the generation of streaks.

Regarding the color developability, in the method of this embodiment, 50% of the images are composed of pixels having high color developability, and macroscopically, they are evenly distributed on average. A uniform image having good color development is formed without significantly impairing the effect of. Further, regarding the water resistance, an excellent image can be obtained regardless of the order in which the printability improving liquid and the ink are ejected.

Further, although color unevenness and density unevenness due to the order in which the printability-improving liquid and the printing ink are ejected occur in dot units, microscopically both are mixed and the uniformity is disturbed. As a result, it is possible to form an image which is averaged and has high uniformity, and a uniform image can be seen even in the case of bidirectional printing using a printability improving liquid.

Further, by performing such printing, as shown in FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C, printing is performed using different nozzles in the same raster, which is the conventional printing method using print ink. It is possible to obtain the effect of multi-pass printing that prevents the nozzle unevenness. For this reason, the amounts of the reactive ink and the printability improving liquid mixed together become uniform, and the occurrence of density unevenness and color unevenness due to this can be suppressed.

Even if the ink and printability improving liquid are partially exchanged in the printing order due to misregistration between the heads, the printing method of the present invention causes the pixels having originally different printing orders to be out of order and to be printed. As a result, the formed image is not significantly disturbed and a highly uniform image can be obtained.

That is, an image of a conventional printability-improving liquid → printing ink has a high coloring property but has many streaks and low uniformity, and an image of a printing ink → printing property-improving liquid has a high uniformity but lacks coloring property. However, according to the printing method of the present invention, it is possible to provide an image with high color development and high uniformity. Further, it is possible to prevent deterioration of image uniformity even during bidirectional printing using the printability improving liquid and to eliminate nozzle unevenness by multi-pass printing.

In this embodiment, an example of a single color and a printability improving liquid has been shown, but this is also the case when a plurality of print inks are used as in a color print, and the order of driving is printability improving liquid → printing ink 1 → Print ink 2
It is possible to obtain a macroscopically uniform image while microscopically mixing the pixels of No. 1 and the print ink 2 → print ink 1 → printability improving liquid pixels.

Further, in the present embodiment, the case of two-pass bidirectional printing is shown, but if the number of print scans required to form an image is further increased, the printing speed becomes slower, but the influence of nozzle unevenness is further increased. A reduced high image quality can be obtained.

In this embodiment, a zigzag / inverse zigzag mask is shown as the thinning mask, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the composition of the ink or the printability improving liquid,
It can be changed according to the required image quality and print mode. For example, the mask pattern may be determined so that in the print mode in which the color developability is emphasized, the pixels on which the ink is ejected after the printability improving liquid are dominant in the image.

(Second Embodiment) A second embodiment will be described below.

7 and 8 illustrate the printing method of this embodiment. In the first embodiment, the printability improving liquid is used for all ink print pixels, but in the case of color printing using a plurality of inks, the printability improving liquid is used for all such ink print pixels. Therefore, the consumption amount of the printability improving liquid is required to be several times as large as that of one printing ink. On the other hand, as an effect of the printability improving liquid, it has been obtained by the experiments of the inventors that the effect is not significantly reduced even when thinning printing is performed on the print ink by about 50 to 25% (ink, printability improving (Slightly different depending on the composition of the liquid). Therefore, in this embodiment, the total consumption of the printability improving liquid is reduced, and the same effect as the printing method of the first embodiment is obtained.

FIG. 7 shows an example in which the amount of the printability improving liquid used is 50% of the print pixels. 1001 in the figure
And 1002 indicate the heads of Bk and the printability improving liquid, respectively. In the figure, both the print ink and the printability improving liquid perform bidirectional printing according to two types of 4 × 4 masks. The first scan prints on the first image area according to the mask patterns K1 and S1. As a result, 25% of the first image area is a printability improving liquid → ink pixel, and 25% is a pixel of print ink only. Then, L / 2 (4 nozzles in the figure) paper feed is performed, and the mask patterns K2 and S2 are scanned in the second scan.
Print to the pixel according to. As a result, printing is performed on the remaining pixels in the first image area, and printing is completed. In the second image area, 25% are pixels of ink → printability improving liquid, and 25% are pixels of print ink only.
Further, L / 2 width paper feed is performed, and printing is performed using the same mask as in the first scan. This completes the printing of the second image area. In other words, the printability improving liquid is a mask of 25% for each of the odd scan and the even scan, and is 5
Print 0%. The print ink prints 50% each for odd scans and even scans, and is 1 as a whole.
Do 00% printing. As a whole, printability improving liquid → print ink, print ink → printability improving liquid, 25% of pixels of print ink only, 25%, respectively.
%, 50%.

In the formed image, other pixels are arranged around the pixel of printability improving liquid → ink, and no streak occurs. In addition, density unevenness and color unevenness due to the presence or absence of the printability improving liquid and the difference in the printing order are macroscopically uniform while mixing pixels of microscopically different properties as in the case of the first embodiment. The image is being formed. As a whole, the above-mentioned effects can be obtained while reducing the consumption of the printability improving liquid to the extent that the effect is not lost.

In the present embodiment, an example in which the pixels using the printability improving liquid is 50% is shown, but FIG. 8 shows an example in which the pixels using the printability improving liquid is 25%. That is, in the example shown in FIG. 8, as the printability mask, the mask patterns K3 and K4 having 50% of pixels to be printed are used as in the above example, but 12.5% of pixels to be printed are used as the mask of the print improving liquid. The mask patterns S3 and S4 are used.

(Third Embodiment) The third embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 9 shows a printing method according to this embodiment. The printing method in this embodiment is to prevent the occurrence of uneven streaks in the printing property improving liquid → inking. In the figure, it is the case of a single color (Bk) print ink and a printability improving liquid. Reference numerals 1001 and 1002 denote a Bk head and a printability improving liquid head, respectively. The head scan direction during printing is always only the forward direction.
In the first scan, the original image data of Bk as the printability improving liquid is thinned and printed by the mask pattern K3. The printability improving liquid data is 100% of the Bk image data printed in the first image area (mask pattern S5).
That is, printing is performed in the first scan. After the printing in the first scan, the paper is not fed, the head is not printed,
It returns to the home position by a blank scan. Then, in the second scan, the image is masked to the first image area in a mask pattern K so as to complement the Bk image printed in the first scan.
Thin out to 4 and print. At this time, the printability improving liquid is not printed (mask pattern S6). This scanning completes the printing of the image of the entire first image area. After that, the paper is fed to the width of the head and the head is idle-scanned to return to the home position. Then, an image is formed on the second image area by the third scan and the fourth scan by the same print as the first scan and the second scan. An image is completed by repeating such printing.

That is, in the (2n-1) th scan (n is a natural number), the printability improving liquid is set to 1 in the print data.
Data (mask pattern K3) obtained by thinning out 00% of the print ink and print ink is printed, and the paper is not fed, and the print ink is (2n-1) in the 2nth scan.
To complement the print in (mask pattern K4)
Print. In all areas, the print ink is printed after the printability improving liquid,
The time from the landing of the printability improving liquid to the landing of the printing ink according to the thinning pattern (landing interval T)
Are very different. In the pixel corresponding to the pattern K3, the landing interval T is short, and in the pixel corresponding to the pattern K4, the landing interval T is long.

The influence of the time (landing interval) T from the time when the printability improving liquid lands on the material to be printed to the time when the printing ink lands (landing interval) T will be described below. First, focusing on the landing interval T and the dot diameter (equivalent circle diameter) of the printed print ink, the shorter T is, the smaller the dot diameter is, and the longer T is, the larger the dot diameter is. FIG. 10 shows an experimental result regarding the relationship between the landing interval T and the dot diameter (equivalent circle diameter) of the print ink. This shows the result when the printability improving liquid and the print ink ideally overlap and land. The horizontal axis of the graph is the time from the landing of the printability improving liquid to the landing of the print ink, and the vertical axis is the dot diameter (equivalent circle diameter) of the print ink on the printed material. It was found that, assuming a printing of 360 dpi, when the landing interval T becomes large to some extent (250 msec or more), a highly uniform image with no noticeable stripes can be obtained.

On the other hand, in terms of color developability, the impact time T
It has been found that the shorter the value, the higher the color development image obtained. This is because when T becomes large, there is a time for the reactive component of the printability improving liquid to permeate in the depth direction of the printing material, and accordingly the dye component in the printing ink also permeates from the surface of the printing material to the inside of the printing material. It is thought to be for the fixation. According to the experiment, it was found that the effect of further enhancing the coloring property of the printability improving liquid was obtained at about 150 msec.

Next, the effect of this embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, Bk printing is performed in a different scan from that in the same scan as the printing of the printability improving liquid, so that pixels having different landing intervals T are mixed in the mask patterns K3 and K4. ing. As a result, two types of printed areas having different landing intervals T are microscopically mixed. As a result, the print pixels having a short landing interval T and the print pixels having a long landing interval T are adjacent to each other, so that the overall coverage rate is increased and an image in which streaks are inconspicuous is obtained. Further, as for the color forming property, an image is composed of pixels having a high color forming property of 50%, and is distributed uniformly on average when viewed macroscopically. Therefore, the color forming property is excellent without significantly impairing the effect of the printability improving liquid. A uniform image is formed.

In this embodiment, the mask pattern is set to 2 pixels.
× 2 are grouped in a zigzag pattern and arranged in a zigzag pattern. However, this pattern is merely an example of the present invention, and may be different from the print path depending on the composition of the ink or the printability improving liquid, the head configuration, the print data, the image quality required by the user, or the print speed. It can be changed as in the other embodiments.

In this embodiment, the case where the landing interval T is different depending on the order of the printability improving liquid → print ink is shown. However, even in the order of printing ink → printing property improving liquid, the landing intervals of both are equal to the print pixel ( The formed dots have different dot diameters and color development properties even when they are different for each area. Therefore, even in such a case, similarly, pixels having different landing intervals may be mixed in small area units to realize an image with high macroscopic uniformity.

(Fourth Embodiment) Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIGS. 11 (a) and 11 (b) are views showing the permeation state of the ink and the printability improving liquid at the time of printing in the depth direction of the paper in the present embodiment. On the other hand, the ink is printed in the order of ink → printability improving liquid → ink. In this case, the print ink is ejected twice for one image data, but the total amount of the print ink ejected in the two prints is made to be the same as the ink amount at the time of printing without using the printability improving liquid. The ink amount is preferably about 50%. In this case, the printability improving liquid is in a state of being sandwiched between the ink that is first ejected (printing ink 1) and the ink that is subsequently ejected (printing ink 2). → Compared to the case where the printability improving liquid is injected, the reaction area becomes larger and the effect can be obtained more stably. In addition, since the print ink 1 is on the paper surface first, the reactive component of the printability improving liquid stays relatively on the surface of the paper surface, and the pigment such as the dye of the print ink 2 that is subsequently ejected stays on the paper surface, so that the coloring is good. Become. Further, it is possible to prevent the generation of streaks that would occur due to the smaller dot diameter in the case of the printability improving liquid → ink.

An example of a head structure and a printing method for realizing the present embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. 12 where ink → printability improving liquid → ink. In this embodiment, the ink is described as an example of a single color of Bk, but the present invention is not limited to this.

In FIG. 12, 2000 is a head unit, and 2001, 2002 and 2003 are Bk, respectively.
1, a printability improving liquid, and a Bk2 head are shown. The image area 2011 of the printing material 2100 is an area where printing is performed when the head scans in the forward direction. First, while the head is moving in the forward direction, the area of 2011 corresponding to the nozzle width L is Bk2 → printability improving liquid → B
After printing in the order of k1, the paper is fed by the nozzle width L. Then, the print is performed while the head scans the image area 2021 in the backward direction, and the paper is fed by the L width.
Print 2 to form an image. By repeating this, the entire image is formed. That is, the image area 2010
In the image area 2020, images are formed in the order of Bk2 → printability improving liquid → Bk1, and in the image region 2020 in the order of Bk1 → printability improving liquid → Bk2.

In this embodiment, two printability improving liquid heads are used.
An example of a head configuration sandwiched by two Bk heads is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this, and in the case of a head configuration in which one Bk and one printability improving liquid are provided, by increasing the number of print passes. Similar effects can be realized.

In the printing method of this embodiment, the reaction area between the printability improving liquid and the ink is increased, and at the same time, the printability improving liquid → ink has a problem in that the coverage is lowered and the ink → printability is a problem. It is possible to prevent the dye from sinking into the paper surface, which is a problem in the case of the improvement liquid, and it is possible to provide an image having high color development and good uniformity.

In this embodiment, the single color printing is described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the same applies to the case where two or more kinds of printing inks are used, such as the case of color printing. When the printability improving liquid → printing ink 2 is printed, the reaction area between both print inks and the printability improving liquid is larger than that of the printability improving liquid → ink 1 → ink 2 printing. It becomes large, and the effects of the printability improving liquid such as water resistance can be sufficiently obtained.

In FIG. 11B, printing is performed in the order of printability improving liquid → ink → printability improving liquid. Contrary to the above case, the printability improving liquid is ejected twice for one image data, but the total amount of the printability improving liquid ejected by two times of printing is shown in FIG.
The amount is the same as the amount of the printability improving liquid in (a), preferably about half of each amount.
Even in this case, the reaction area between the print ink and the printability improving liquid becomes large, and the effect of the printability improving liquid can be obtained more stably. In the similar printing method in the known example, there is no description about the amount of the printability improving liquid as in the present invention. If recording is performed so that the amount of the printability improving liquid that is previously ejected is about the same as that in FIG. 11A, a sufficient reaction occurs between the printability improving liquid and the print ink that have been previously printed. Since the formed recording dots are the same as the dots formed by the printability improving liquid → ink, an image with streaks becomes conspicuous during solid recording. On the other hand, when the amount of the printability-improving liquid to be ejected first becomes small, on the contrary, an image having color developability and feathering like an image of the ink → printability-improving liquid tends to be formed. For this reason, it is preferable that the amount of each printing liquid is about half of the printability improving liquid amount of FIG.

Further, according to the idea of the present invention, the number of times of printing of the print ink and the printability improving liquid necessary for forming one pixel is further increased, and the printing is performed in a divided manner. For example, the printability improving liquid → ink → Printability improving liquid → By performing printing with ink, the reactivity between the ink and the printability improving liquid can be further enhanced, and a more stable effect of the printability improving liquid can be obtained. However, in this case, it cannot be realized unless the number of heads is increased or the printing speed is reduced, and the realizing method differs depending on the main body cost, the printing speed, the printing quality, etc. desired by the user. At this time, it is preferable to set a single shot amount so that the total shot amount of the ink and the printability improving liquid does not exceed the ink receiving amount of the printing material.

(Fifth Embodiment) A fifth embodiment will be described below.

In FIG. 13, reference numerals 1101 and 1102 respectively denote a color print head and a printability improving liquid head. This color print head 110
As shown in FIG. 14, 1 is a CMY color integrated chip in which cyan, magenta and yellow are integrated in one head. The printability improving liquid data is printed in the same manner as the pixel data of the color data printed in the same scan.

FIG. 13 shows the printing method of this embodiment.
For the sake of explanation, a blue print using C (cyan) and M (magenta) will be described. First, printing is performed on the image area 1c in the order of the printability improving liquid → C ink by the first scan. After that, the paper is fed with 48 nozzles, the printability improving liquid → C ink is printed on the image area 2c, and at the same time, the printability improving liquid → M ink is printed on the image area 1m. Print is completed. The image areas 1c and 1m are displaced from each other by an amount corresponding to 8 nozzles of the head color gap. Therefore, the print width of the image area 1m is 40 nozzles. After that, paper feed with a width of 48 nozzles is performed, and image area 3
The printability improving liquid → C ink is printed on c, and the printability improving liquid → M ink is printed on the image area 2 m. The print area by the M head has a width of 48 nozzles in the area after the image area 2 m. An image is formed by repeating such printing.

Next, the effect of this embodiment will be described. By analogy with the conventional printing method, it is general that the data of the printability improving liquid is the logical sum of C ink and M ink, and is printed in the order of printability improving liquid → C ink → M ink. Is considered to be. However, in the printing method of this embodiment, the printability improving liquid is always printed immediately before the ink is printed. That is,
Printability improving liquid 1 → C ink → Printability improving liquid 2 →
Print like M ink. In the former conventional printing method, the effect of the printability improving liquid such as the improvement of the color developability is not sufficient for the M ink which is ejected later. This is because the time interval from the landing of the printability improving liquid to the landing of the M ink is large, and the components of the printability improving liquid have sufficiently penetrated into the printing material during this time, and the ink and the printability improving liquid are It is considered that the reaction of occurs in a portion relatively deeper than the surface of the printing material. On the other hand, in the latter printing method of this embodiment, the printability improving liquid 2 is printed immediately before the M ink printing. As a result, the landing interval between the M ink and the printability improving liquid 2 is shortened, and the M ink is ejected before the printability improving liquid 2 has sufficiently penetrated into the printed material. The reaction with the liquid sufficiently occurs, and the effects such as the improvement of the color developability are not impaired.

Further, C (cyan) and Y (yellow)
In the case of ink, in the former printing method, the landing interval between the printability improving liquid and the Y ink becomes large and the effect of the printability improving liquid cannot be sufficiently obtained. However, the printability improving liquid effect can be sufficiently obtained. Further, in the case of multi-pass printing intended for higher image quality, the former printing method results in a larger landing interval between the printability improving liquid and the ink, and the printing method of the present invention is more effective.

Considering a case where the printability improving liquid head and the heads for the respective colors of ink are arranged side by side,
In the conventional method that does not use the printability improving liquid, a thinning mask is used to print a plurality of inks on the same pixel in different scans so that a large amount of ink is ejected onto one pixel at a time and ink overflow does not occur. It is set. When this printing method is applied to the printing method in which the logical sum of the printing inks is used as the data of the printing property improving liquid, the landing interval of the printing property improving liquid and the printing ink ejected for the second time on the printing material is also as described above. Will become bigger. Therefore, by using the printing method as in this embodiment, it is possible to perform printing in which ink overflow is prevented and the effect of the printability improving liquid is sufficiently obtained.

In contrast to the printing method of this embodiment, when bidirectional printing is performed to improve the printing speed, the printing method as described in the first embodiment is used to print ink and print. It is possible to prevent the irregularity of the uniformity due to the difference in the order of driving the property improving liquid.

(Sixth Embodiment) A sixth embodiment will be described below.

The printing method of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 15 and 16A, 16B and 16C. In FIG. 15, reference numerals 1201 and 1202 denote a monochromatic (Bk) head and a printability improving liquid head, respectively. For the purpose of explanation, the monochrome ink is Bk, but
The present invention is not limited to this. These heads can eject ink droplets having different ejection amounts from one nozzle. That is, as shown in FIGS. 16 (a) to 16 (c), two nozzles are provided in the liquid passage 12 communicating with one nozzle 11.
The two heaters 13A and 13B are arranged in parallel and each heater is independently driven. Then, both heaters can obtain a normal discharge amount, and one heater can obtain a discharge amount about half of the normal discharge amount. The discharge amount of the Bk head is Vdk1 = 8
0 pl, Vdk2 = 40 pl, and the printability improving liquid head is Vds1 = 40 pl, Vds2 = 20 pl.

In the method shown in FIG. 15, the printability improving liquid of the ejection amount Vds2 and the Bk ink of Vdk2 are applied to the first image area by the first scanning to obtain the printability improving liquid → B.
Printing is performed in a staggered pattern in the order of k ink. Then, the paper feed for the L / 2 width and the idle scan are performed in the backward direction to return to the head home position. Then, printing is performed in the second scan. For the pixels in the staggered arrangement at this time, the first
Similar to the scanning of, the printability improving liquid and the Bk ink are discharged in the order of Vds2 and Vdk2. For the remaining pixels in the reverse zigzag arrangement, Vds1 and Vdk1 are printed in the order of printability improving liquid → Bk ink.
Print with the discharge amount of. As a result, pixels are formed in the first image area in a staggered manner in the order of printability improving liquid → Bk ink → printability improving liquid → printability improving liquid, and in reverse zigzag form in the order of printability improving liquid → Bk. The printing of the first image area is completed. At this time, the total amount of the ink and the printability improving liquid applied to each pixel is equal. After that, L / 2 width paper feed and idle scan of the head are performed, and the printability improving liquid (Vds2) → Bk (V
Print dk2). As a result, printing is completed in the second image area, and in the same manner as in the first image area, the printability improving liquid → Bk → printability improving liquid → printability improving liquid are printed in this order, and the printability is reversed zigzag. Improvement liquid → B
Pixels are formed in the order k. An image is formed by repeating this.

That is, the printability improving liquid (Vds2) → Bk ink (Vdk) is formed in a staggered pattern by the odd-numbered scanning.
Perform divided printing as in 2), and after L / 2 paper feed,
The printability improving liquid (Vds2) → Bk ink (Vdk2) is printed in a staggered pattern, and at the same time, the printability improving liquid (Vds1) → Bk ink (Vdkl) is printed in an inverted zigzag pattern. This makes the printability improving liquid in a zigzag pattern → B
Printing is performed so that pixels of k ink → printability improving liquid → Bk ink are arranged in a zigzag pattern, and pixels of printability improving liquid → Bk ink are arranged.

Next, the effect of this embodiment will be described. In the printing (divided printing) method such as the printability improving liquid, the print ink, the printability improving liquid, the print ink, the print ink, the printability improving liquid, and the print ink as described in the fourth embodiment, the printability is improved. Since the reaction area between the improving liquid and the ink is large, the effect of the printability improving liquid is sufficiently obtained. However, when such printing is performed on the front surface of the image, the head is required to have about twice the durability as in the case of normal printing. Therefore, in the printing method of the present embodiment, the print duty (Duty) half of the print is set as ink → printability improving liquid → print ink pixel, and the other half is the printability improving liquid →
Printing is performed separately for each pixel of print ink. This is a printing method capable of extending the durability of the head while maintaining a remarkably excellent effect of the printability improving liquid, which is obtained when divided printing is performed, at a relatively high level. As a mixing method, as described in the first embodiment, pixels having different properties are mixed microscopically so as to macroscopically obtain an image with high uniformity.

In this embodiment, as an example of divided printing, printability improving liquid → print ink → printability improving liquid →
Although the example of the print ink has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be print ink → printability improving liquid → print ink.

(Seventh Embodiment) In the above embodiment, an example in which the mask pattern is zigzag / inverse zigzag and an example in which 4 × 4 is arranged in zigzag / inverse zigzag as one unit area is shown. An example will be shown in this embodiment.

FIG. 17 shows a case in which the order of driving is printability improving liquid → ink and ink → printability improving liquid. In this example, the total print width in the head main scanning direction is 360
Printing is performed such that areas printed in the order of printability improving liquid → ink with a pixel width of 1 dpi and areas printed in the order of ink → printability improving liquid are arranged alternately. As described above, even when the band having a constant width is repeated, if the width does not have a certain size, a macroscopically uniform image can be formed.

FIG. 18 shows an example in which the same pixels are arranged in the paper feed direction and pixels of different characteristics are alternately arranged in the head main scanning direction. Even in this case, the same effect can be obtained. In these examples, pixels of the same nature were arranged at 360 dpi and 1 pixel width, but according to experiments, band unevenness was not conspicuous up to 360 dpi and 5 pixel widths when the width was gradually increased, but more ( 360 dpi, 6 pixels wide,
It has been found that when the width is about 420 μm), band unevenness increases and image uniformity deteriorates. That is, in both the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction of the head, by mixing heterogeneous pixels so that homogenous pixels having a certain width (about 430 μm) or more do not continue, it is possible to achieve uniformity without significantly degrading image quality. Higher images are obtained.

In this embodiment, the case of ink → printability improving liquid has been shown, but the same effect can be obtained when different kinds of pixels are mixed on the images in the above second, third and sixth embodiments.

In the first to sixth embodiments, the ideal case where the print ink and the printability improving liquid have landed on the same pixel is shown. However, registration misalignment and reduction of ink consumption can be achieved. When printing is performed by intentionally shifting the landing position of the printability-improving liquid from the print pixels, even if the pixels are separated when they are struck with ink, at least part of them will penetrate into the print material due to liquid penetration. Thus, the effects of the above-described embodiment can be sufficiently obtained even in a substantial case including the case where the print ink and the printability improving liquid are adjacent to each other.

(Eighth Embodiment) In the above embodiment, the ratio of the amount of printability improving liquid and the amount of printing ink applied to the printing material will be described.

In the printing method shown in FIGS. 4, 5 (a) and 5 (b) shown in the first embodiment, the print ink and the printability improving liquid are applied to each pixel to be printed the same number of times. According to the experiment by the people, the effect of the printability improving liquid is different depending on the ratio of the amount of printing on the recording medium. However, considering the water resistance and the streak of the image, (printing amount of printing ink): (printing property) It was appropriate that the amount of improvement liquid injected) = 1: 0.1-1.

The inventors printed print ink (superimposing type Bk) on a grid point of 360 dpi with a head having an ejection amount of 80 ng, and the ejection amount of the printability improving liquid was 5 to 5.
The experiment was performed by changing the range of about 100 ng. When this ratio was larger than 1: 0.1, the water resistance was lost. Further, when the amount of printability improving liquid ejected exceeds 1: 1 and exceeds the amount of print ink ejected,
Depending on the type of print ink, streaks may be noticeable on the image. Furthermore, in the print head manufacturing process, in consideration of variations in ejection amount and changes in use environment, (printing ink ejection amount): (printability improving liquid ejection amount) = 1: 0.25 to 0. A ratio of about 75 is preferable.

Although the example in the first embodiment is shown here, in the other second, third, fourth and fifth embodiments, the total amount of ink ejected onto the printing material and the printability are also shown. When the ratio of the total amount of the improvement liquid injected was the above value, almost the same effect was obtained. That is, the effect of the present invention can be obtained not by the ratio of the implantation amounts in the microscopic region but by the ratio of the macroscopically averaged implantation amounts.

(Supplement of Examples) An example of an ink jet printing apparatus for carrying out Examples 1 to 8 of the method of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 19 is a perspective view showing the outline of an ink jet printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the ink jet printing apparatus 100, the carriage 101 slidably engages with two guide shafts 104 and 105 extending in parallel with each other. As a result, the carriage 101 can be moved along the guide shafts 104 and 105 by a driving motor and a driving force transmission mechanism (not shown) such as a belt that transmits the driving force of the driving motor. An ink jet cartridge 103 having an ink jet head and an ink tank as an ink container for accommodating ink used in this head is mounted on the carriage 101.

The ink jet cartridge 103 comprises a head for ejecting the ink and the printability improving liquid as the printability improving liquid, and a tank as a container for storing the ink or the printability improving liquid supplied to the head. That is, four heads for ejecting the four color inks of black (Bk), cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) and the printability improving liquid, and the heads provided corresponding to these heads, respectively. The ink jet cartridge 103 is mounted on the carriage 101. Each head and the tank are removable from each other, and are provided so that only the tank can be replaced for each individual ink color etc. when the ink or printability improving liquid in the tank is used up. There is. Of course, only the head can be replaced if necessary. The structure for attaching and detaching the head and the tank is not limited to the above example, and it goes without saying that the head and the tank may be integrally molded.

The paper 106 as the material to be printed is inserted from the insertion port 111 provided at the front end of the apparatus, the conveyance direction thereof is finally reversed, and the feed roller 109 conveys it to the lower part of the moving area of the carriage 101. To be done. As a result, the head mounted on the carriage 101 prints on the print area on the paper 106 supported by the platen 108 as the head moves.

As described above, printing is performed on the entire paper 106 by alternately repeating the printing of the width corresponding to the width of the ejection opening arrangement of the head and the feeding of the paper 106, and the paper 106 is discharged to the front of the apparatus. It

At the left end of the movable area of the carriage 101, there is provided a recovery system unit 110 which can face the heads on the carriage 101 and the lower part thereof so that the ejection ports of the heads can be used when recording is not performed. It is possible to perform an operation of capping, an operation of sucking ink from the ejection port of each head, and the like. The predetermined position of the left end is set as the home position of the head.

On the other hand, at the right end of the apparatus, an operation section 107 having switches and display elements is provided. The switches here are used when turning on / off the power of the apparatus and setting various print modes, and the display element plays a role of displaying various states of the apparatus.

FIG. 20 is a perspective view of the print head unit 103 shown in FIG. This example is black,
This is a case where the cyan, magenta, and yellow inks and the printability improving liquid tank are all independently replaceable.

On the carriage 101, Bk, C, M, Y and a print head 102 for ejecting a printability improving liquid,
Bk tank 20K, C tank 20C, M tank 2
The tanks 20Y for 0M and Y and the tank 21 for the printability improving liquid are mounted. Each tank is connected to the print head through a connection portion with the print head, and supplies ink and printability improving liquid to the ejection port.

Other than this example, for example, the printability improving liquid and the Bk tank may be integrated, or the C, M, and Y tanks may be integrated.

FIG. 21 is an enlarged sectional view of the vicinity of the heating element of the print head. In the ink jet printing apparatus of this example, heating elements, which are electric / thermal converters, are arranged on the substrate so as to correspond to the respective ink ejection ports, and drive signals corresponding to print information are applied to the heating elements to eject the ink from the ejection ports. A printing method of ejecting ink droplets 35 is adopted.

Here, the heating element 30 is configured to be able to independently generate heat for all nozzles. More specifically, the ink in the nozzle that is rapidly heated by the heat generated by the heating element 30 forms bubbles due to film boiling, and the ink droplets 35 cause the ink droplets 35 to form due to the pressure of bubble generation.
Is ejected toward and forms characters and images on the printing material 31. At this time, the volume of each color ink droplet ejected is 15 to 80 ng.

Each of the ejection ports 23 is provided with an ink liquid passage 34 which communicates with the ejection port 23.
A common liquid chamber 32 for supplying ink to these liquid passages 34 is provided behind the portion where the ink is disposed. Outlet 23
In the ink liquid path 34 corresponding to each of these
A heating element 30 which is an electric / heat converting element that generates thermal energy used to eject ink droplets 35 from the nozzle 3 and electrode wiring for supplying electric power to the heating element 30 are provided.
The heating element 30 and the electrode wiring are formed on the substrate 33 made of silicon or the like by a film forming technique. Heating element 30
A protective film 36 is formed on the upper surface so that the ink and the heating element do not come into direct contact with each other. Further, by stacking the partition wall 34 made of resin or glass material on the substrate 33, the ejection port 23, the ink liquid passage 34, the common liquid chamber 32, and the like are formed.

As described above, the printing method using the heating element 30 which is an electric / heat conversion element uses bubbles formed by applying thermal energy at the time of ejecting ink droplets, and therefore is commonly known as Bubble Jet (registered trademark). It is called the print method.

FIG. 22 shows the recovery unit 1 shown in FIG.
It is a perspective view which shows the concrete structure of 10. Corresponding to the print head, a Bk cap 112, a C cap 114, an M cap 115, and a Y cap 1
16 and a cap 113 for the printability improving liquid. Each of the caps 112 to 116 is configured to be movable in the vertical direction. When the print head is located at the home position, it is joined to the print head portion and caps it, thereby preventing ejection failure due to thickening or sticking due to evaporation of ink in the ejection port of the print head.

Each cap 112 of the recovery unit 110
116 communicates with the pump unit 119. The pump unit 119 is used to generate a negative pressure in a suction recovery process of joining the cap unit and the print head to suck ink from the discharge port of the print head when the print head has a discharge failure. The pump unit is dedicated to the printability improving liquid and is separately provided for each head for ink, and the waste liquid is sent to the waste liquid tank by each independent path. This is to prevent insolubilization in the pump due to the contact between the color ink for printing and the printability improving liquid in the pump and the pump. Two pump units may be provided for the printability improving liquid and the color ink to be printed.

The recovery unit is further provided with a printability improving liquid blade 117 for wiping the ejection opening portion of the printability improving liquid ejection head, and a color ink blade 118 for wiping the ejection opening portion of the printing ink ejection head. And are provided.

Each of these blades 117 and 118
Is a blade formed of an elastic member such as rubber for wiping the ink or the printability improving liquid attached to the ejection port forming surface of the print head. The blade is configured to be movable in the up-down direction by an elevating device (not shown) so as to have a raised position for wiping the print head surface and a lowered position so as not to interfere with the print head surface.

In order to prevent the print ink and the printability improving liquid from being mixed and solidified near the ejection opening forming surface of the print head by wiping, the printability improving liquid blade 117 for wiping the printability improving liquid ejecting portion 117.
The color ink blades 118 for wiping the print ink ejecting portion are independently provided, and are configured to be independently movable so that they can be moved up and down.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing the control arrangement of the ink jet printing apparatus of the embodiment. Character and image data to be printed (hereinafter referred to as image data) is input from the host computer to the reception buffer 401 of the printing apparatus 100. Further, the data for confirming whether the data is correctly transferred and the data for notifying the operating state of the printing apparatus are transferred from the printing apparatus to the host computer. The data input to the reception buffer 401 is RA under the control of the control unit 402 having a CPU.
The data is transferred to the M type memory unit 403 and temporarily stored. The mechanical control unit 404 drives a mechanical unit 405 such as a carriage motor or a line feed motor, which is a power source of the carriage 101 and the feed roller 109 (see FIG. 4), according to a command from the control unit 402. The sensor / SW control unit 406 sends signals from the sensor / SW unit 407 including various sensors and SWs (switches) to the control unit 402. The display element control unit 408 is
In response to a command from the control unit 402, the display of the display element unit 409 including the LEDs of the display panel group and the liquid crystal display element is controlled. The head controller 410 receives each of the heads 30K, 30C, 30M, 30 according to a command from the controller 402.
Y and 31 are individually controlled. In addition, temperature information indicating the state of each head is transmitted to the read control unit 402. The control unit 402 includes an image processing unit that performs image processing.

(Ninth Embodiment) FIG. 24 is a perspective view showing the schematic arrangement of a printing apparatus which can carry out an embodiment of the ink jet printing method of the present invention. In this figure,
Reference numeral 701 is an ink cartridge. These are four color inks, black (K), cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), and a printability improving liquid (hereinafter, P) for insolubilizing or aggregating the color material in the ink.
(Also referred to as liquid), and a multi-head 702. FIG. 25 shows the state of the multi-nozzles arranged on the multi-head 702 from the z direction. Reference numeral 801 denotes the multi-head 702.
It is a multi-nozzle arranged above. In FIG. 24, 70
A paper feed roller 3 rotates together with the auxiliary roller 704 in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 24 while suppressing the print paper as the material to be printed, and feeds the print paper in the y direction at any time. Numeral 705 denotes a paper feed roller which feeds the printing paper and also plays a role of suppressing the printing paper like 703 and 704. A carriage 706 supports five ink cartridges and moves them together with printing. The carriage 706 stands by at the home position (h) at the position shown by the dotted line in FIG. 24 when printing is not performed or when multihead recovery work is performed.

In the present embodiment, the ejection portion of each ink jet cartridge ejects droplets by causing the ink to change its state using thermal energy. Here, the ejection portion may be a part of the same head or a different head.

Here, 5 mounted on the carriage 706.
The individual ink jet cartridges are arranged so that the P liquid, the black ink, the cyan ink, the magenta ink, and the yellow ink are superposed in this order when the carriage moves forward.

FIG. 26 is a block diagram showing the controller of the ink jet printing apparatus shown in FIG. 12 in the figure
Reference numeral 01 is a control unit mainly composed of a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, etc., and controls each part of the apparatus according to a program stored in the ROM. 1202 is a driver for driving a carriage motor 1205 for moving (main scanning) the carriage 706 in the x direction based on a signal from the control unit 1201. 1203 is a paper feed roller 705 based on a signal from the control unit 1201. And a driver 1204 that drives the paper feed roller 703 to drive the carry motor 1206 for carrying (sub-scanning) the print material in the y direction (sub-scanning) based on the print data from the control unit 1201. A driver for driving (corresponding to 702 in FIG. 24), an operation display unit 1212 for inputting various keys and various displays, and a host device 1213 for supplying print data to the control unit 1201.

Before the start of printing, the carriage 706 at the position h (home position) in FIG. 24 moves in the x direction when the print start command arrives, and is moved by the n multi nozzles 801 on the multi head 702 to the paper surface. Print on top. When the printing of the data is completed up to the edge of the paper and the reversal position is reached, the paper feed roller 703 feeds the paper in the y direction by a predetermined width, and the carriage starts to move back toward the home position and prints the data again. I do. In this way, the printing by the multi-head and the paper feeding are repeated for each scan (main scanning) of the carriage, whereby the data printing on one paper surface is completed.

Basically, the image data of the ink jet head for P liquid is created as the logical sum data of the image data sent to each ink jet print head, and in some cases, the image data thinned out is printed.

FIG. 27 is a schematic diagram for explaining the ninth embodiment of the ink jet printing method of the present invention.

FIG. 27 shows a state in which printing is performed using an 8-nozzle head for convenience of explanation. In this embodiment, first, a carriage 70 on which an inkjet print head for ink and an inkjet head for P liquid are mounted.
In forward printing, image data 6 prints an ink image and a P liquid image on pixels as indicated by 301 in the arrow direction while advancing in the arrow direction (first scan). As can be seen from 301, in the first scan, the image data of the P liquid is not thinned out at all, and the image data of the ink is printed in a zigzag thinned position. At this time, the arrangement of the heads mounted on the carriage is P liquid, K,
Since they are arranged in the order of C, M, and Y, the P liquid is landed on each pixel before the ink is landed. Next, the carriage is reversed from this state without feeding the paper, and the head performs reverse printing in the direction opposite to the first scanning (second scanning). At this time, the P liquid is not ejected and the image data of only the ink is printed on the pixels thinned out in an inverted zigzag pattern, so that the image for the print area of the head is complemented and completed. Here, by the paper feed roller, arrow y in the figure
By feeding paper by 8 pixels (printing area of the print head) in the direction, the print head moves 30
In the position corresponding to the print state of No. 3, the forward printing of the image data of the P liquid and the ink is performed while advancing in the arrow direction similarly to the first scanning (third scanning). After that likewise
Connect to scanning. By doing so, it is possible to cause the P liquid to land before the ink in all pixels, and since the image data of the ink in each scan is thinned out, the inkjet head for the P liquid is obtained. It is possible to print without increasing the power supply capacity even if the number of prints increases, and the throughput does not decrease due to the reciprocal printing.

In this example, since the ink was made to adhere after the P liquid was applied to all the pixels, the print density was high and a clear print image without unevenness was obtained.

In this embodiment, all the pixels can be printed without thinning out the P liquid data at the time of forward printing, but the P liquid data may be thinned and printed. FIG. 28 shows a modification of this embodiment as an example thereof. This is obtained by thinning out the P liquid data in a zigzag manner in the same manner as the ink data in the forward printing of the second scan and the first scan and the third scan described above. Usually, the amount of ink droplets is designed to be larger than the area given to each pixel on the paper surface. This is to prevent the blank area from being seen at all in the area of 100% print rate data, and even if only 50% of the print pixels are printed as described above, FIG. As shown in, most of the area is covered. Therefore,
When printing in a zigzag pattern in forward printing as in the first scan or the third scan, most of the area is covered with P liquid, so there is sufficient water resistance without ejecting P liquid during backward printing. Is demonstrated. Further, by thinning out the P liquid data, the consumption amount of the P liquid could be significantly reduced. The thinning rate of the P liquid data is not particularly limited and may be thinned with a duty other than this. Further, in the present embodiment, the image is completed by scanning the same region twice, but this may be completed by a larger number of scans.

Here, an example of the formulation of the ink and the P liquid used in this embodiment is shown below.

Y ink Glycerin 5.0% by weight Thiodiglycol 5.0% by weight Urea 5.0% by weight Acetinol EH (Kawaken Chemical Co., Ltd.) 1.0% by weight Dye C.I. I. Direct Yellow 142 2.0 wt% Water 82.0 wt% M Ink Glycerin 5.0 wt% Thiodiglycol 5.0 wt% Urea 5.0 wt% Acetinol EH (Kawaken Fine Chemicals) 1.0 wt% Dye C ． I. Acid Red 289 2.5% by weight Water 81.5% by weight C ink Glycerin 5.0% by weight Thiodiglycol 5.0% by weight Urea 5.0% by weight Acetinol EH (Kawaken Fine Chemicals) 1.0% by weight Dye C ． I. Direct Blue 199 2.5 wt% Water 81.5 wt% Bk ink Glycerin 5.0 wt% Thiodiglycol 5.0 wt% Urea 5.0 wt% Isopropyl alcohol 4.0 wt% Dye Food Black 23.0 wt% % Water 78.0 wt% Printability improving liquid (P liquid) Polyallylamine hydrochloride 5.0 wt% Benzalkonium chloride 1.0 wt% Diethylene glycol 10.0 wt% Acetinol EH (Kawaken Fine Chemicals) 0.5 wt% % Water 83.5% by weight Here, an example in which a dye is used as the color material of the Y, M, C, Bk ink has been shown, but the invention is not limited to this, for example, a pigment is used as the color material, or A mixture of a dye and a pigment may be used. The same effect can be obtained by using an optimum printability improving liquid in which each ink containing a color material aggregates.

(Tenth Embodiment) FIG. 30 is a schematic diagram for explaining a tenth embodiment of the ink jet printing method of the present invention. Here, as in the case of the previous embodiment, for convenience of description, a state of printing using an 8-nozzle head is shown. In this embodiment, first, the carriage 706 shown in FIG. 24, on which the ink jet print head for ink and the ink jet head for P liquid are mounted, is used for forward printing, and the image data is thinned to 311 in a staggered pattern.
The ink image and the P liquid image are printed while advancing in the arrow direction (first scan). At this time, since the heads mounted on the carriage are arranged in the order of the printability improving liquid, Bk, C, M, and Y in order from the right side of the carriage, the ink is ejected after the P liquid is landed on each pixel. Will land. Next, by the paper feed roller, arrow y in the figure
By feeding the paper by four pixels in the direction, the print head is relatively positioned corresponding to the state of 312 in the drawing. From this state, the print head performs reprinting in the direction of the arrow (second scan). At this time, without ejecting the P liquid, the image data of only the ink is printed on the pixels thinned in an inverted zigzag pattern, and the image for the four pixels from the top is complemented and completed. Here, the paper feed roller again feeds paper by four pixels in the direction of the arrow y in the figure, so that the print head waits at a position corresponding to the print state of 313 in the figure, and advances in the direction of the arrow to move the P liquid and the ink. The forward printing is performed on pixels obtained by thinning out the image data in a staggered manner (third scanning). After that, the process is similarly connected to the fourth scan.

Also in this embodiment, since the ink is always landed where the P liquid is printed, the image density is high, and the ink dots are caused by the nozzle variations and the connection stripes due to the divided printing method. A beautiful image with no unevenness can be obtained. Moreover, the P liquid image is 50
Since it is thinned out to%, the consumption of P liquid can be greatly reduced. Focusing on the print pixels of the P liquid, the split printing method was not used, but the printability improving liquid was almost colorless or light-colored, and therefore its influence was hardly observed.

In the present embodiment, the thinning-out is performed in a zigzag manner, but the thinning-out rate is not particularly limited to 50%, and the thinning-out may be performed with a duty other than this. Further, in the present embodiment, the image is completed by scanning the same region twice, but this may be completed by a larger number of scans.

(Eleventh Embodiment) FIG. 31 is a schematic diagram for explaining the eleventh embodiment of the ink jet printing method of the present invention. Here again, for the sake of convenience of description, the configuration is made of eight nozzle heads.

First, the carriage 2 carrying the ink jet print head for ink and the ink jet head for printability improving liquid prints the ink image and the P liquid image while advancing in the direction of the arrow to the pixel indicated by 321 in the forward printing. (First scan). Here, the P liquid data is printed without thinning out at all, and the ink data is allowed to be printed only in pixels thinned in a staggered pattern. At this time, since the heads mounted on the carriage are arranged in the order of P liquid, Bk, C, M, and Y in order from the right side of the carriage, P liquid is first supplied to each pixel on which ink is printed. Will land on. Next, the paper feed roller feeds paper by four pixels in the direction opposite to the normal direction, that is, in the direction opposite to the arrow y direction in the figure, so that the print head is relatively positioned corresponding to the state 322 in the figure. . From this state, the print head performs reprinting in the direction of the arrow (second scan). At this time, the P liquid data is not printed, and only the ink data is printed in pixels which are thinned out in an inverted zigzag pattern, so that the image for four pixels from the top is complemented and completed. Since the area printed in the backward pass is the area already printed in the forward pass, the P liquid has already been attached to the pixels printed in the backward pass. Therefore, in the same way as in the forward pass, the pixels printed in the return pass are coated with the printability-improving liquid and then the ink is overlaid. Next, the paper feed roller feeds paper by 12 pixels (total number of nozzles + 4 pixels) in the direction of the arrow y in the drawing, so that the head stands by at the position 323 in the drawing, and forward printing is performed again (third scan). After that, it is connected to the fourth scan.

In this embodiment, since the ink was made to adhere after the P liquid was applied to all the pixels, the print density was high and a clear print image without unevenness was obtained. Further, as compared with the embodiment, in this embodiment, it is possible to deposit the p liquid first on all pixels on which ink is printed without thinning out the P liquid data.

In this embodiment, all the pixels can be printed without thinning out the P liquid data at the time of forward printing, but the P liquid data may be thinned and printed. FIG. 32 shows a modification of this embodiment as an example thereof. This is obtained by thinning out the P liquid data in a zigzag manner in the same way as the ink data in the forward print of the first scan and the third scan of the second embodiment described above. Even if the P liquid data was thinned to 50%, sufficient water resistance was obtained as described in Example 1. Further, by thinning out the P liquid data, the consumption amount of the P liquid could be significantly reduced. The thinning rate of the P liquid data is not particularly limited and may be thinned with a duty other than this. Further, in the present embodiment, the image is completed by scanning the same region twice, but this may be completed by a larger number of scans.

In the above-described mixing of the P liquid (liquid composition) and the ink, in the present invention, as a result of mixing the P liquid and the ink on the printing material or at the position where the ink penetrates, the reaction In the first step of the above, the water-soluble dye or pigment ink having a low molecular weight component or cationic oligomer among the cationic substances contained in the liquid P and the anionic group used in the ink is used. Anionic compounds associate with each other by ionic interaction, and instantaneously separate from the solution phase. As a result, dispersion destruction occurs in the pigment ink, and pigment aggregates are formed.

Next, in the second step of the reaction, the aggregate of the dye and the low molecular weight cationic substance or cationic oligomer or the aggregate of the pigment is adsorbed by the polymer component contained in the P liquid. In addition, the size of aggregates of dyes or pigments formed by association is further increased,
It becomes difficult to enter the gaps between the fibers of the material to be printed, and as a result, only the liquid portion that has undergone solid-liquid separation penetrates into the recording paper, so that both print quality and fixability are achieved. At the same time, the aggregate or pigment aggregate formed by the low molecular weight component of the cationic substance or the cationic oligomer formed by the mechanism as described above, the anionic dye and the cationic substance becomes more viscous, and as the liquid medium moves, Since they do not move, even if adjacent ink dots are formed of different color inks as in full-color image formation, they do not mix with each other and bleeding does not occur. Further, the above-mentioned aggregates are essentially water-insoluble, and the water resistance of the formed image is perfect. Further, it also has the effect of improving the light fastness of the image formed by the shielding effect of the polymer.

As the insolubilization or agglomeration used in the present specification, one example thereof is a phenomenon only in the first stage, and another example is a phenomenon including both the first stage and the second stage.

(Twelfth Embodiment) This embodiment relates to an ink jet printing method adopting the two-pass printing method using the ink jet printing apparatus shown in FIGS.

FIG. 33 is a diagram showing a printing process of 2-pass printing.

In FIG. 33, the printing material 106 is A
It shows a state in which the head unit 103 prints on a plain paper of four sizes while moving relatively on the plain paper. In the figure, S indicates the ejection port of the printability improving liquid which is located on the rightmost side in the head unit 103 and is arranged in a line in the vertical direction. Similarly, Bk, C, M, and Y are Bk,
The ejection ports for ejecting C, M and Y inks are shown. The head unit 103 performs a forward print operation in the arrow X1 direction,
In addition, the print operation for the return path is performed in the direction of arrow X2. The numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the right side of the drawing indicate the number of times the head unit 103 has performed the printing operation in the main scanning direction, and the parentheses of the number indicate the printing range during those printing operations. FIG. 33 shows a state of the printing operation during the fourth scanning. Since printing is performed by scanning twice in a unit print area, it is generally called 2-pass printing. Further, here, the printing operation is performed both in the forward path and in the backward path, so that 2-pass bidirectional printing is performed.

34 (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) are masks for ejection data of the printability improving liquid in the two-pass printing method and Y, M, C and B.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a mask for print data of each color ink of k. 7A is a mask for ejection data of the printability improving liquid in the first pass (hereinafter, also simply referred to as “S mask”), and FIG. 7B is a mask for S in the second pass. FIG. 7C shows the matrix M set in the print area.
It is a figure explaining each s1. In the same figure (d), Y,
A mask for print data of the first pass of each color ink of M, C, and Bk, and a mask for print data of the second pass of each color ink of Y, M, C, and Bk will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. The figures (d) and (e) have a complementary relationship. In addition, (a), (b),
In each of the masks (d) and (e), X which is the main scanning direction
This corresponds to a size of (4 × 2) pixels based on 4 pixels in the direction and 2 pixels in the Y direction which is a sub-scanning direction orthogonal to the X direction. The smallest square in FIGS. 34 (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) indicates the smallest print pixel.

The mask for S uses the matrix Ms1 of FIG. 34 (c) as a basic matrix, and the matrix Ms1 is used as a unit to discharge the printability improving liquid (hereinafter, referred to as "S").
Data)). The elements of the matrix Ms1 are m11, m12, m13, m14, m21, m2.
There are 8 pixels of 2, m23 and m24. Therefore, the actual size of the matrix Ms1 is 4 pixels (about 70 μm × 4) in the X direction and 2 pixels (about 70 μm ×) in the Y direction.
2).

The process of creating S data will be described below.

First, in the first pass, print data of Y ink (hereinafter, also simply referred to as "Y print data").
S data Ms1-Y1 of FIG.
To decide. That is, for the matrix Ms1, m1
Paying attention to the (2 × 2) sub-matrix of 1, m12, m21, and m22, Y print data for ejecting Y ink to any of these m11, m12, m21, and m22 (hereinafter, referred to as “Y ejection data”). Data)), the S data corresponding to m11 is turned on (printability improving liquid ejection). If there is no Y ejection data in any of these m11, m12, m21, or m22, m1
The S data corresponding to 1 is turned off (printability improving liquid is not ejected). In the S data Ms1-Y1, m12,
The S data corresponding to m21 and m22 is always OFF, and the S data corresponding to m13, m14, m23, and m24 is always OFF. In this way, the S data Ms1-Y1 of the first pass corresponding to the Y print data
Is determined.

Similarly, the S data Ms1-M1 of FIG. 34A is determined in relation to the M ink print data (hereinafter, also simply referred to as "M print data"). That is, m11, m12, m21, or m22
If there is M print data (hereinafter referred to as “M ejection data”) for ejecting M ink in any of the above, m1
S data corresponding to 2 is turned ON (printability improving liquid ejection)
To Their m11, m12, m21, or m2
If there is no M ejection data in any of No. 2, the S data corresponding to m12 is set to OFF (printability improving liquid non-ejection). In the S data Ms1-M1, m11, m21,
The S data corresponding to m22 is always OFF, and
The S data corresponding to m13, m14, m23 and m24 are always OFF. In this way, the first pass S data Ms1-M1 corresponding to the M print data is determined.

Similarly, the S data Ms1-C1 in FIG. 34A is determined in relation to the C ink print data (hereinafter, also simply referred to as "C print data"). That is, m11, m12, m21, or m22
If there is C print data (hereinafter referred to as “C ejection data”) for ejecting C ink in any of the above, m2
S data corresponding to 2 is turned ON (printability improving liquid ejection)
To Their m11, m12, m21, or m2
If there is no C ejection data in any of No. 2, the S data corresponding to m22 is set to OFF (printability improving liquid is not ejected). In the S data Ms1-C1, m11, m12,
The S data corresponding to m21 is always OFF, and
The S data corresponding to m13, m14, m23 and m24 are always OFF. In this way, the first pass S data Ms1-C1 corresponding to the C print data is determined.

Similarly, the S data Ms1-Bk1 of FIG. 34A is determined in relation to the Bk ink print data (hereinafter, also simply referred to as "Bk print data"). That is, m11, m12, m21, or m2
If there is Bk print data (hereinafter, referred to as “Bk ejection data”) for ejecting Bk ink in any of No. 2, S data corresponding to m21 is turned on (printability improving liquid ejection). If there is no Bk ejection data in any of these m11, m12, m21, or m22, m
The S data corresponding to 21 is turned off (printability improving liquid is not ejected). In the S data Ms1-Bk1, m1
The S data corresponding to 1, m12, m22 is always OFF, and the S data corresponding to m13, m14, m23, m24 is always OFF. In this way, Bk
S data Ms1- of the first pass corresponding to print data
Bk1 is determined.

Then, the S data of the first pass is Y,
It is created as the logical sum of the data Ms1-Y1, Ms1-M1, Ms1-C1, and Ms1-Bk1 corresponding to each of the M, C, and Bk print data.

In the second pass, the S data Ms1-Y2 shown in FIG. 34B is determined in relation to the Y print data. That is, m13, m14, m23, or m2
If there is Y ejection data in any of 4), the S data corresponding to m13 is turned on (printability improving liquid ejection). If there is no Y ejection data in any of these m13, m14, m23, or m24, the S data corresponding to m13 is set to OFF (printability improving liquid non-ejection). In the S data Ms1-Y2, the S data corresponding to m14, m23, m24 is always OFF, and m11, m
S data corresponding to 12, m21, m22 must be OFF
Is. In this way, the S data Ms1-Y2 of the second pass corresponding to the Y print data is determined.

Similarly, the S data Ms1-M2, Ms1 of the second pass corresponding to the print data of M, C, Bk.
-C2, and Ms1-Bk2 are determined.

The S data of the second pass is Y,
It is created as the logical sum of the data Ms1-Y2, Ms1-M2, Ms1-C2, and Ms1-Bk2 corresponding to each of the M, C, and Bk print data.

These S data are the CPs shown in FIG.
Memory unit 4 storing data to be printed by U402
When 03 is accessed and the data to be printed is sent to the head controller 410, it is created by being processed in real time by a program stored in the CPU 402. The S data is sent to the head control unit 410 in the same manner as the print data of each color ink. Then, based on the S data and the print data of each color ink, the head 102 is driven corresponding to the print position to be printed, and the printability improving liquid or each color ink is ejected. As described above, the S data is created by the internal program, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a method in which the S data is processed in advance by the host computer and then transferred to the printing apparatus may be used. Alternatively, a hardware unit that executes S data calculation processing may be provided in the printing apparatus.

In this example, the sub-matrix of (2 × 2) pixels on the left side of the matrix Ms1 is used for the S data creation of the first pass, and the sub-matrix of (2 × 2) pixels on the right side is used as the first sub-matrix. It was used to create S data for the second pass.

In this way, the matrix Ms1 for (4 × 2) pixels is divided into two sub-matrices for (2 × 2) pixels, and each of them is associated with a different path.
In the two-pass printing method, the printability improving liquid can be uniformly ejected in the first and second passes.
That is, all the printability improving liquid is discharged in the first pass and the printability improving liquid is not discharged in the second pass,
Alternatively, the unevenness of the ejection of the printability improving liquid in the first pass and the second pass, such as the case where most of the printability improving liquid is ejected in the first pass and the printability improving liquid is hardly ejected in the second pass, It can be lost. Such uniform ejection of the printability improving liquid in each pass leads to uniform mixing or uniform reaction of the printability improving liquid and the ink, and the effect obtained by the mixing or reaction of the printability improving liquid and the ink is maximized. Will be demonstrated. Specifically, only the ink of the pixels printed in the first pass has water resistance, and the ink of the pixels printed in the second pass has insufficient water resistance. Water resistant performance was obtained in the printed pixels.

The masks for the Y, M, C, and Bk print data are (4 ×) as shown in FIGS. 34 (d) and 34 (e).
2) It is associated with each matrix Ms1 for pixels, and the first pass and the second pass have a complementary relationship for each ink. In FIGS. 34D and 34E,
For example, in a pixel corresponding to a blank portion, it is turned on (ink ejection) if there is ejection data for the corresponding ink, and is off (no ink ejection) if there is no ejection data for that ink. Further, in FIGS. 34D and 34E, the pixel corresponding to the black portion is turned off (ink is not ejected) regardless of the presence or absence of print data of the corresponding ink.

Microscopically looking at the pixel unit, a portion (SI portion) where the printability improving liquid is first ejected and then ink is ejected and the ink is ejected first to the material 106 to be printed. Next, a portion (IS portion) where the printability improving liquid is ejected occurs, and the hue may be different between the SI portion and the IS portion depending on the characteristics of the printability improving liquid. However, as described above, since the mask for S data and the mask for print data of each ink are different from each other, the SI part and the IS part are dispersed uniformly in a macroscopic view. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a print image having a uniform hue.

Further, in printing using a plurality of colors of ink, since the mask for S data and the mask for print data of each ink in each pass are all different as described above, a uniform printability improving liquid is obtained. It became possible to eject, and the effect of the printability improving liquid was uniformly obtained for each ink.

Here, if the printability improving liquid is ejected to a specific pixel, then the ink is ejected, and further the printability improving liquid is ejected, the printability improving liquid is applied to the same pixel twice. It will be discharged twice. The ejection of the printability improving liquid twice in some cases is unavoidable in order to bring out the effect, but it is preferable that the printability improving liquid is dispersed in pixel units. Therefore, as in the present embodiment, the logical product of the S data of the first pass and the S data of the second pass is set to zero for each pixel, that is, the maximum number of times the printability improving liquid is ejected per pixel. By determining the S data to do so, such problems are solved.

Further, the logical product of the S data for each pixel becomes zero in the first pass, and the logical product of the S data for each pixel also becomes zero in the second pass. Corresponding S data is dispersed pixel by pixel,
The effect obtained by mixing or reacting the printability improving liquid with each ink is also uniform.

As described above, since the logical product of S data of each pixel in the first pass and the second pass and the logical product of S data of each pixel in each pass are zero, printability is improved. The effect obtained by mixing or reacting the liquid with each ink becomes greater.

Here, regarding the ejection of each of the Y, M, C, and Bk inks, in the case of a uniform print area of a single color ink, the printability improving liquid is ejected at a rate of 25% in pixel units. This is because the effect obtained for the water resistance, which is the effect of the printability improving liquid, is equivalent to that of 100%. Originally, in ejecting the printability improving liquid which should not be necessary for image formation, minimizing the amount of the printability improving liquid used is effective in minimizing the running cost. Further, when a large amount of the printability improving liquid as a liquid is discharged onto the print target material 106 shown in FIG. 19, the print target material 106 absorbs the liquid component and becomes uneven. This unevenness not only directly deteriorates the quality of the printed matter, but especially during the multipass printing, the printing material 1 during the printing operation.
Due to the unevenness of 06, the head 102 and the printed material 106
The distance between the ink and the ink changes, causing a deviation in the landing position of each ink on the print material 106, which leads to a problem of deteriorating print quality. Therefore, it is desirable to eject the printability improving liquid in a minimum volume.

Further, if the data is processed so that the printability improving liquid is simply ejected at a rate of 25% with respect to the logical sum of the print data of Y, M, C, and Bk, those inks are used as 2%. For the secondary colors R (red), G (green), and B (blue) that are combined respectively, Y, M, C
The printability improving liquid is ejected at a ratio of 12.5%, which is substantially half of the ink of each color, and the mixing ratio of the printability improving liquid and each ink is reduced. As a result, the characteristics such as water resistance are deteriorated. Therefore, as in the first embodiment, at least the masks for S data corresponding to the Y, M, and C print data are made different, and the logical product of the S data for each pixel is set to zero.
That is, in the first pass, the data Ms1-Y1, Ms1-M
The logical product of 1 and Ms1-C1 for each pixel is all zero, and the data Ms1-Y2, Ms1-M2, and M are also used in the second pass.
By setting all the logical products of s1-C2 for each pixel to zero, as described above, the printability improving liquid is ejected at a rate of 25% on a pixel-by-pixel basis, and the printability improving liquid and the ink have the same ratio. It became possible to mix with.

Further, in this embodiment, the logical product of the S data for each pixel is set to zero for all the pixels, but there may be some pixels that do not become zero, and the number of such pixels should be minimized. This makes it possible to mix the printability improving liquid and the ink for each pixel in a substantially uniform ratio.

Thus, the S data is simply converted into Y, M, C.
By deciding in consideration of the logical product of each pixel, instead of deciding based on the logical sum of the print data of
The S data for the next color is more than 1/2 of the duty of the S data for the primary color, and has the same duty as the S data for the primary color at the maximum, and simply print data of Y, M, C. Compared to the case where S data is calculated from the logical sum of 2
It was possible to increase the duty of the S data in the secondary color and enhance the effect of the printability improving liquid in the secondary color.

Note that it is advantageous for data processing to create S data of 25% duty by using ink of four colors as in this embodiment. In general, (n of 2
The power (n is an integer greater than or equal to 1) divided by 100% is easy for the processing device to calculate, and since four more colors of ink are used here, S data corresponding to the print data of each ink is used. This leads to the advantage of being able to prepare different independent masks for use as a mask.

By creating S data with a duty of 25% or less for each color, the logical product of the S masks corresponding to each color can be made zero. The smaller the duty, the better as long as the printability improving liquid is effective.

Further, in the head 102 having a plurality of ejection openings 23 for ejecting the ink and the printability improving liquid, regarding the ejection of the printability improving liquid in the multi-pass printing, the ejection openings 23 for the plurality of printability improving liquids are used. Can be uniformly used to prolong the life of the printability improving liquid ejecting section, and further, even if there are variations in the plurality of printability improving liquid ejection ports 23, the printed material 106
It has become possible to discharge the printability improving liquid evenly.

If the S data is simply determined based on the logical sum of the print data of Y, M, C, and Bk, use of the preceding specific one of the ejection port 23 of the printability improving liquid is performed. The frequency will increase. That is, even though it is a multi-pass printing, the probability that the printability improving liquid is ejected in the first first pass is high, and the life of the ejection port of the preceding specific printability improving liquid is shortened. Further, in the first pass printing, non-uniformity such as the ejection amount of the printability-improving liquid from the plurality of ejection ports 23 and the deviation (ejection direction) appears as it is, and the printing operation is divided into a plurality of times. However, it becomes impossible to cancel the non-uniformity such as the discharge amount of the printability-improving liquid from the plurality of discharge ports and the twist. The present invention solves these problems.

Here, the formulation of the used ink and the printability improving liquid is as follows.

Y (yellow) ink Glycerin 5.0% by weight Thiodiglycol 5.0% by weight Urea 5.0% by weight Isopropyl alcohol 4.0% by weight Acetylenol EH (Kawaken Fine Chemicals) 1.0% by weight Dye C.I. I. Direct Yellow 142 2.0 wt% Water 78.0 wt% M (Magenta) Ink Glycerin 5.0 wt% Thiodiglycol 5.0 wt% Urea 5.0 wt% Isopropyl Alcohol 4.0 wt% Acetylenol EH (River Ken Fine Chemicals) 1.0% by weight Dye C.I. I. Acid Red 289 2.5 wt% Water 77.5 wt% C (cyan) ink Glycerin 5.0 wt% Thiodiglycol 5.0 wt% Urea 5.0 wt% Isopropyl alcohol 4.0 wt% Acetylenol EH (River Ken Fine Chemicals) 1.0% by weight Dye C.I. I. Direct Blue 199 2.5 wt% Water 77.5 wt% Bk (black) ink Glycerin 5.0 wt% Thiodiglycol 5.0 wt% Urea 5.0 wt% Isopropyl alcohol 4.0 wt% Dye Food Black 2 3.0 wt% water 78.0 wt% S (printability improving liquid) polyallylamine hydrochloride 5.0 wt% benzalkonium chloride 1.0 wt% diethylene glycol 10.0 wt% acetylenol EH (Kawaken Fine Chemicals) 0 0.5 wt% water 83.5 wt% As described above, 1.0% of acetylenol EH, which is a surfactant, is added to the Y, M, and C inks as compared with the Bk ink to improve the permeability. Therefore, the Y, M, and C inks are superior in fixing property to the Bk ink. On the other hand, the Bk ink has a slightly lower permeability than the Y, M, and C inks, but has a high print density and a sharp edge portion, and is therefore suitable for printing characters and line drawings. Further, 0.5% of acetylenol EH was also added to the printability improving liquid to slightly improve the permeability.

In carrying out the present invention, the ink to be used is not limited to the dye ink, and a pigment ink in which a pigment is dispersed may be used, and the printability improving liquid to be used aggregates the pigment. What can be used can be used. The following may be mentioned as an example of the pigment ink that causes aggregation by mixing with the above-mentioned colorless liquid A1. That is, as described below, yellow, magenta, cyan, and black color inks containing a pigment and an anionic compound, Y2,
M2, C2 and K2 can be obtained.

[Black Ink K2] Anionic polymer P-1 (styrene-methacrylic acid-ethyl acrylate, acid value 400, weight average molecular weight 6,000, solid content 2
Using a 0% aqueous solution and a neutralizing agent: potassium hydroxide) as a dispersant, the following materials were placed in a batch type vertical sand mill (made by AIMEX), filled with 1 mm diameter glass beads as a medium, and cooled with water. The dispersion treatment was performed for 3 hours. The viscosity after dispersion was 9 cps and the pH was 10.0. This dispersion is centrifuged to remove coarse particles,
A carbon black dispersion having a weight average particle diameter of 100 nm was prepared.

(Composition of carbon black dispersion) -P-1 aqueous solution (solid content 20%) 40 parts-Carbon black Mogul L (manufactured by Cablack) 24 parts-Glycerin 15 parts-Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether 0.5 part- Isopropyl alcohol 3 parts / water 135 parts Next, the dispersion obtained above was sufficiently dispersed to obtain a black ink K2 for ink jet containing a pigment. The solid content of the final preparation was about 10%.

[Yellow Ink Y2] Anionic polymer P-2 (styrene-acrylic acid-methyl methacrylate, acid value 280, weight average molecular weight 11,000, solid content 20% aqueous solution, neutralizing agent: diethanolamine) was used. Using a dispersant and the following materials, the dispersion treatment was performed in the same manner as in the production of the black ink K2 to produce a yellow color dispersion having a weight average particle diameter of 103 nm.

(Composition of yellow dispersion) P-2 aqueous solution (solid content 20%) 35 parts C.I. I. Pigment Yellow 180 24 parts (Novapalm Yellow PH-G, manufactured by Hoechst) -Triethylene glycol 10 parts-Diethylene glycol 10 parts-Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether 1.0 part-Isopropyl alcohol 0.5 part-Water 135 parts The yellow dispersion was sufficiently diffused to obtain an inkjet yellow ink Y2 containing a pigment. The solid content of the final preparation was about 10%.

[Cyan ink C2] Black ink K2
Using the anionic polymer P-1 used in the preparation of the above as a dispersant, the following materials were used to perform the same dispersion treatment as in the case of the carbon black dispersion described above, and the weight average particle diameter of 120 nm was used. A cyan color dispersion was prepared.

(Composition of cyan color dispersion) P-1 aqueous solution (solid content 20%) 30 parts C.I. I. Pigment Blue 15: 3 24 parts (Fast Gemble-FGF, Dainippon Ink and Chemicals) ・ Glycerin 15 parts ・ Diethylene glycol monobutyl ether 0.5 parts ・ Isopropyl alcohol 3 parts ・ Water 135 parts Cyan color dispersion obtained above Was sufficiently stirred to obtain a cyan ink C2 for ink jet containing a pigment. The solid content of the final preparation was about 9.6%.

[Magenta Ink M2] Black Ink K
Using the anionic polymer P-1 used in the preparation of 2 as a dispersant, the following materials were used to carry out the same dispersion treatment as in the case of the carbon black dispersion described above, and the weight average particle diameter was 115 nm. A magenta color dispersion of was prepared.

(Composition of magenta color dispersion) P-1 aqueous solution (solid content 20%) 20 parts C.I. I. Pigment Red 122 (Dainippon Ink & Chemicals Co., Ltd.) 24 parts Glycerin 15 parts Isopropyl alcohol 3 parts Water 135 parts Magenta ink for ink jet containing a pigment by sufficiently diffusing the magenta color dispersion obtained above. M2
Got The solid content of the final preparation was about 9.2%.

In the above-described mixing of the printability improving liquid (liquid composition) and the ink, in the present invention, the above-mentioned printability improving liquid and the ink are mixed at the position on the printed material or at the position where the ink has penetrated into the printed material. As a result, as a first step of the reaction, among the cationic substances contained in the printability improving liquid, a low molecular weight component or cationic oligomer and a water-soluble dye or pigment having an anionic group used in the ink are used. Anionic compounds used in the ink associate with each other by ionic interaction, and instantaneously separate from the solution phase. As a result, dispersion destruction occurs in the pigment ink, and pigment aggregates are formed.

Next, in the second step of the reaction, the aggregate of the dye and the low molecular weight cationic substance or cationic oligomer or the aggregate of the pigment is adsorbed by the polymer component contained in the printability improving liquid. Therefore, the size of the aggregate of dyes or the aggregate of pigments generated by the association is further increased, and it is difficult for the aggregates of the dyes or the pigments to enter into the spaces between the fibers of the printing material. By soaking in, both print quality and fixability are achieved. At the same time, the aggregate or pigment aggregate formed by the low molecular weight component of the cationic substance or the cationic oligomer formed by the mechanism as described above, the anionic dye and the cationic substance becomes more viscous, and as the liquid medium moves, Because it never moves,
Even if adjacent ink dots are formed of different color inks as in full-color image formation, they do not mix with each other and bleeding does not occur.
Further, the above-mentioned aggregates are essentially water-insoluble, and the water resistance of the formed image is perfect. Further, it also has the effect of improving the light fastness of the image formed by the shielding effect of the polymer.

As the insolubilization or agglomeration used in the present specification, one example thereof is the phenomenon of the first stage only, and the other example is a phenomenon including both the first stage and the second stage.

In carrying out the present invention, it is not necessary to use a cationic polymer substance having a large molecular weight or a polyvalent metal salt as in the prior art, or even if it is necessary to use the present invention, Since it is only necessary to supplementarily use it to further improve the effect, the amount used can be minimized. As a result, the reduction of the color developability of the dye, which is a problem when trying to obtain the water resistance effect using the conventional cationic polymer substance or polyvalent metal salt, is eliminated. Can be listed as the effect of.

The material to be printed used in carrying out the present invention is not particularly limited, and so-called plain paper such as conventionally used copy paper and bond paper can be preferably used. Of course, a coated paper specially prepared for inkjet printing and a transparent film for OHP can also be suitably used, and general high-quality paper and glossy paper can also be suitably used.

(Thirteenth Embodiment) In the twelfth embodiment,
The matrix Ms1 (2) on the left side in FIGS.
X2) The print data for pixels is used to create the S data of the first pass, and (2 ×) on the right side in FIGS.
2) Print data for pixels was used to create S data for the second pass. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the printability improving liquid can be uniformly ejected by dividing the matrix Ms1 into a plurality of sub-matrices for each color and printing them in different passes.

FIGS. 35 (a), 35 (b) and 35 (c) are diagrams showing other examples of S data masks for 2-pass printing, respectively. 1st corresponding to Y and M print data
To create the S data Ms2-Y1 and Ms2-M1 of the pass, print data for (2 × 2) pixels on the left side is used, and the S of the first pass corresponding to the C and Bk print data is used.
To create the data Ms2-C1 and Ms2-Bk1, print data for (2 × 2) pixels on the right side is used. In the second pass, print data on different sides were used.

As a result of this processing, Y,
It became possible to create more average S data for all inks of M, C, and Bk.

(Fourteenth Embodiment) In the twelfth embodiment,
A method for realizing uniform ejection of the printability improving liquid during 2-pass printing has been shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is also effective in all multi-passes of two or more passes such as four passes and eight passes.

FIGS. 36 (a), 36 (b), 36 (c) and 36 (d) are views showing masks for S data in 4-pass printing. FIG. 7A is the first pass, FIG. 7B is the second pass, FIG. 7C is the third pass, and FIG.
It is a mask for S data in each pass.
From the left, the S data corresponding to the print data of Y, M, C, and Bk are shown.

Here, the matrix Ms3 for (4 × 4) pixels is divided into four sub-matrices of (2 × 2) pixels for each ink, and each sub-matrix is printed by different passes to obtain four passes. At the time of printing, it has become possible to uniformly eject the printability improving liquid for each ink.

For the S data corresponding to the Y print data, the sub-matrix of (2 × 2) pixels on the upper left side in the figure is used to create the S data Ms3-Y1 for the first pass, and the sub data on the upper right side is used. The sub-matrix for (2 × 2) pixels is used to create the S data Ms3-Y2 for the second pass, and the sub-matrix for (2 × 2) pixels on the lower right side is used for the S for the third pass. It is used to create data Ms3-Y3, and (2
X2) The sub-matrix for pixels is used to create the S data Ms3-Y4 of the fourth pass. FIG. 36 shows the S data corresponding to the M, C, and Bk print data.
As shown in (a) to (d), the sub-matrix used in this order was shifted clockwise. In each sub matrix of (2 × 2) pixels, Y, M, C, Bk
Each S data corresponding to each print data of
As for the position of N, the one corresponding to Y is the upper left, the one corresponding to M is the upper right, the one corresponding to C is the lower left, and the one corresponding to Bk is the lower left.

Here, for example, the S data corresponding to the Y print data is, in the first pass, in the upper left sub-matrix of (2 × 2) pixels in the matrix Ms2 of (4 × 4) pixels, m11, m12, m21, or m
If there is Y ejection data in any of 22, the S data at the position of m11 is turned on, and the S data at the other positions of m12, m21, m22 is turned off. Similarly, data processing is performed for M, C, and Bk, and their data Ms3-Y
The logical sum of 1, Ms3-Y2, Ms3-Y3, and Ms3-Y4 is S data of the first pass. Data processing is similarly performed for the first to fourth passes. Here, the structure of the mask for Y, M, C, and Bk print data does not matter.

(Fifteenth Embodiment) In the twelfth embodiment,
With respect to the ejection of the Y, M, C, and Bk inks, in the case of a uniform print area on the entire surface, the printability improving liquid was ejected at a rate of 25% in pixel units. However, it is not limited to this.

If the Y, M, C, and Bk ink print areas are not uniform print areas on the entire surface and are sparsely printed in the minimum pixel unit, the discharge of the discharge liquid S is 25 on average. It may occur that the ratio becomes higher than the ratio of%.

Therefore, for example, for S data corresponding to the Y print data of the first pass in FIG.
If there are at least two Y ejection data out of four of 11, m12, m21, and m22, m of S data
Turn on 11. If there are no more than two Y ejection data among these four, m11 of the S data is turned off. The S data of the other m12, m21 and m22 must be OFF. Also, the S data of m13, m14, m23, and m24 are always turned off. In this way, the S data Ms1-Y1 of the first pass corresponding to the Y ink data is determined. The sub-matrix is for (2 × 2) pixels, and whether or not there are two or more Y ejection data among them is S data ON.
And the conditions. This is equivalent to the condition that the ratio of Y ejection data in the sub-matrix is 50% or more.

Similarly, the data of the first pass corresponding to the print data of M, C, Bk is created, and the logical sum of the data of the first pass is set as S data. Also, it is created similarly to the S data of the second pass.

In this way, for each ink, S is calculated according to the existence ratio of the ink ejection data in the sub-matrix.
By deciding ON / OFF of the data, the average ejection amount of the printability improving liquid is not increased even in the sparsely printed area.

Although the ratio of the ink ejection data, which is the criterion for determining the ON / OFF of the S data, is set to 50% here, this ratio is optimal depending on the characteristics of each ink and the printability improving liquid. The value can be selected. When the ink of Example 1 was used, a good effect was obtained by setting it to 25 to 75%.

(Sixteenth Embodiment) In the first embodiment,
With respect to the ejection of the Y, M, C, and Bk inks, in the case of a uniform print area on the entire surface, the printability improving liquid was ejected at a rate of 25% in pixel units. However, it is not limited to this. Depending on the characteristics of the ink used and the printability improving liquid, for example, the printability improving liquid may be ejected at a rate of 50% in each pixel for each ink.

FIGS. 37A, 37B and 37C show masks for S data when the printability improving liquid is ejected at a ratio of 50% with respect to each ink. This example is an example in the case of 2-pass printing. 9A is a mask for S data of the first pass, FIG. 9B is a mask for S data of the second pass, and FIG. 9C is a matrix Ms4 set in the print area. It is a figure explaining each. First pass of print data of Y, M, C, Bk and 2
The mask for the pass eye may be the same mask as in the twelfth embodiment.

The mask for S data has 4 pixels in the X direction which is the main scanning direction and Y which is the sub scanning direction orthogonal to the X direction.
It is a mask corresponding to the size of the matrix Ms4 for (4 × 2) pixels based on 2 pixels in the direction. The smallest square in the figure represents the smallest printed pixel.

The mask for S data is the matrix Ms4.
Is the basic matrix, and S is the unit of this matrix.
Determine the data. The elements of the matrix Ms4 are m1
1, m12, m13, m14, m21, m22, m2
This corresponds to eight pixels of 3, m24. Therefore, the actual size of the matrix Ms4 is (about 70 μm in the X direction).
X4), and the Y direction is (about 70 μm × 2).

The process of creating S data will be described below.

In the first pass, for the S data corresponding to the Y print data, pay attention to the sub-matrix of (2 × 2) pixels on the left side in the matrix Ms4.
If there are 2 (= N4) or more Y ejection data in the four m12, m21, and m22, m11 and m12 of the S data are set to ON (printability improving liquid ejection), and other m13 and m1.
4, m21, m22, m23 and m24 are turned off (printability improving liquid is not ejected). If there are no more than 2 (= N4) Y discharge data, all S of m11 to m24
Turn off the data. In this way, the S data Ms4-Y1 of the first pass corresponding to the Y print data is determined.

Similarly, for S data corresponding to M print data, m11 and m1 of the left sub-matrix
If there are 2 (= N4) or more M ejection data in 2, m21, m22, m12 and m22 of S data are turned on, and other m11, m13, m14, m21, m23, m.
24 is turned off. If there are no more than 2 (= N4) M ejection data, all S data of m11 to m24 are turned off. In this way, the first pass S data Ms4-M1 corresponding to the M print data is determined.

Similarly, for S data corresponding to C print data, m13 and m1 in the right sub-matrix
If there are 2 (= N4) or more C discharge data among 4, m23, m24, m23 and m24 of S data are turned on, and other m11, m12, m13, m14, m21, m.
22 is turned off. If there are no more than 2 (= N4) C discharge data, all S data of m11 to m24 are turned off. In this way, the S data Ms4-C1 of the first pass corresponding to the C print data is determined.

Similarly, S corresponding to Bk print data
As for data, m13 and m of the right sub-matrix
2 (= N4) or more Bk among 14, m23, and m24
If there is ejection data, turn on m13 and m23 of S data
And other m11, m12, m14, m21, m22,
Turn off m24. In addition, 2 (= N4) or more B
If there is no k ejection data, all S data of m11 to m24 are turned off. In this way, the S data Ms4-Bk1 of the first pass corresponding to the Bk print data is determined.

Then, the S data of the first pass is Y,
Data Ms4-Y corresponding to M, C, and Bk, respectively
It is created as a logical sum of 1, Ms4-M1, Ms4-C1, and Ms4-Bk1.

In the second pass, for s data corresponding to Y print data, m1 in the left sub-matrix is used.
2 out of 4 of 3, m14, m23, and m24 (= N4)
If there are more than one Y ejection data, m13 and m of S data
14 is turned on and other m11, m12, m21, m2
2, m23 and m24 are turned off. Also, 2 (= N
4) If there is no more than Y discharge data, m11 to m24
All S data of are turned off. In this way, the S data Ms4- of the second pass corresponding to the Y print data
Y2 is determined.

Similarly, for S data corresponding to M print data, m13 and m1 of the right sub-matrix
If there are 2 (= N4) or more M ejection data in 4, m23, m24, m14 and m24 of S data are turned on, and other m11, m12, m13, m21, m22, m.
23 is turned off. If there are no more than 2 (= N4) M ejection data, all S data of m11 to m24 are turned off. In this way, the second pass S data Ms4-M2 corresponding to the M print data is determined.

Similarly, for S data corresponding to C print data, m11 and m1 of the left sub-matrix
If there are 2 (= N4) or more C discharge data in 2, m21, m22, m21 and m22 of S data are turned on, and other m11, m12, m13, m14, m23, m.
24 is turned off. If there are no more than 2 (= N4) C discharge data, all S data of m11 to m24 are turned off. In this way, the second pass S data Ms4-C2 corresponding to the C print data is determined.

Similarly, S corresponding to Bk print data
For data, the left sub-matrix m11, m
2 (= N4) or more Bk among 12, m21 and m22
If there is discharge data, turn on m11 and m21 of S data
And other m12, m13, m14, m22, m23,
Turn off m24. In addition, 2 (= N4) or more B
If there is no k ejection data, all S data of m11 to m24 are turned off. In this way, the S data Ms4-Bk2 of the second pass corresponding to the Bk print data is determined.

The S data of the second pass is Y,
Data Ms4-Y corresponding to M, C, and Bk, respectively
2, Ms4-M2, Ms4-C2, Ms4-Bk2.

In this example, N4 = 2, but N4 = 3 or N4 depending on the characteristics of the printability improving liquid and the ink.
It may be 4 = 4.

For the creation of S data corresponding to the Y and M print data, the left sub-matrix is processed as the target pixel in the first pass and the right sub-matrix is processed as the target pixel in the second pass. In order to create S data corresponding to the print data of Bk and Bk, the right sub-matrix is processed as the target pixel in the first pass and the left sub-matrix is processed in the second pass, but the target pixel may be set either way. Further, the target pixel may be different for each color.

(Seventeenth Embodiment) In the above-described embodiments, the head 102 has the plurality of ink ejecting portions and the printability improving liquid ejecting portion arranged side by side in the main scanning direction, but it is not limited to this. Alternatively, for example, a plurality of ink ejecting portions and printability improving liquid ejecting portions may be arranged in the sub-scanning direction.

FIG. 38 shows another structure of the head 102. The head 102 has Y, M, and C ink ejection portions arranged in the sub-scanning direction (P). Further, the printability improving liquid ejecting portion and the Bk ink ejecting portion are arranged in the main scanning direction (Q). Also in the case of this head 102, the concept of the relationship between each ink ejecting portion, the printability improving liquid ejecting portion, and the print pixel is the same. The difference is that Y, M, and C ink ejecting units do not print at the same print position in the same main scan. However, the Y, M, C, and Bk inks and the printability improving liquid are ejected on a pixel-by-pixel basis by the main scanning and the sub-scanning operation of the printing material 106 a plurality of times by the head 102 shown in the first embodiment. The arrangement is the same as that of the arrangement, and does not depend on the arrangement of each ink ejecting portion or the printability improving liquid ejecting portion in the head 102.

In the above embodiments, the head 10 is used.
2 shows an example in which the heating element 30 as an electricity / heat conversion element is provided, but the invention is not limited to this, and for example, electricity / heat conversion element
Ink or a printability improving liquid may be ejected using a mechanical conversion element.

FIG. 39 shows a structural example of a head using an electromechanical conversion element. Here, 38 is a piezoelectric element as an electromechanical conversion element. Besides, the configuration of the head does not matter.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the so-called multi-pass system, in which the print ink is ejected by scanning a plurality of times over the same range of the material to be printed, has been described. Is applicable to.

FIG. 40 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When the printing operation is started, the printability improving liquid is first ejected from the head 31 onto the printing material 106 according to the print data at a position corresponding to the ejection number of each color head, and then from the Bk head 30K. Ejection, and then ejection from the Y, M, C heads 30Y, 30M, 30C are sequentially performed. As a result, first, S and Bk are mixed and insolubilized. Next, S, Y, M, and C are mixed and insolubilized.

FIG. 40 shows a process in which the carriage carrying the head is performing the fourth main scanning (hereinafter, also referred to as scanning).

The printing operation is performed only in the direction in which the head moves to the right as indicated by the arrow R, and the printing operation is not performed during back scanning in which the head moves to the left. Also, the same print area is printed by one scan for each ink. That is, one-pass unidirectional printing is performed.

In FIG. 40, the lengths indicated by C1 to C4, M2 to M4 and Y3 and Y4 are C head 30C and M head 3 respectively.
0M and each of the Y heads 30Y, the n-th time of the head unit 102 (n = 1, 2, 3,
The width (width) of the scan area to be printed by the scan 4) is shown. As is clear from this, with respect to the Y, M, and C inks, in the first scan, which is the start of printing, ejection is performed from only a part of the ejection opening group of the C head 30C, and printing is performed in the area of width C1. At this time, it is needless to say that the S head 31 and the K head 30K also perform ejection according to the respective ejection data with respect to the scanning region having the width C1. Further, even after the second scan shown below, the same area as the ejection area of the C head 30C for the K head 30K, and the C area for the S head 31 are
Ejection is performed on the same area as the area ejected by each of the M and Y heads according to the respective ejection data.

In the second scan, the C head 30C has the width C.
For the two scan areas, the M head 30M ejects to the scan area of the width M2. At this time, as is apparent from the figure, the M head 30M prints (width M2) so as to overlap a part of the region (C1) printed by the C head 30C in the previous first scan.

In the third scan, the Y head 30Y is further added.
Is printed in the area indicated by Y3 (area Y
3) In the fourth scan, printing is performed for the first time using all the ejection ports of the C, M, and Y heads.

In FIG. 40, the region which is being printed in the fourth scan as described above is shown by the diagonal lines.

That is, the Y head 30Y is CMY-x in the x direction (main scanning direction) and Yy in the y direction (sub scanning direction).
Print the area indicated by. The M head 30M prints a region indicated by CMY-x in the x direction and My in the y direction. The C head 30C prints an area indicated by CMY-x in the x direction and Cy in the y direction. The Bk head prints an area indicated by Bk-x in the x direction and Cy in the y direction.

Here, the ejection from the S head 31 is performed on the areas corresponding to the print areas of the inks of the colors overlapping in the main scanning direction as described above. As a result, Y
The printability improving liquid for ink is S-x, y in the x direction.
The discharge is performed in the area indicated by Y-y. The printability improving liquid is ejected onto the area of M ink in the area indicated by Sx in the x direction and in the area indicated by My in the y direction. For C and Bk inks, an area indicated by Sx in the x direction and an area indicated by Cy in the y direction is printed. (Others) The present invention is provided with a means (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) for generating heat energy as energy used for ejecting ink, particularly in the inkjet recording system, and The effect is excellent in a recording head and a recording apparatus of a system that causes a change in ink state by energy. This is because such a system can achieve high density recording and high definition recording.

Regarding its typical structure and principle, see, for example, US Pat. No. 4,723,129 and US Pat. No. 4,740.
What is done using the basic principles disclosed in 796 is preferred. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
It can be applied to any of the continuous type, but especially in the case of the on-demand type, it can be applied to the sheet holding the liquid (ink) or the electrothermal converter arranged corresponding to the liquid path. By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recording information and giving a rapid temperature rise exceeding nucleate boiling, heat energy is generated in the electrothermal converter, and film boiling is caused on the heat acting surface of the recording head. Liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal in a one-to-one correspondence
It is effective because bubbles can be formed inside. Due to the growth and contraction of the bubbles, the liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection opening to form at least one droplet. It is more preferable to make this drive signal into a pulse shape, because the bubble growth and contraction are immediately and appropriately performed, so that the ejection of the liquid (ink) with excellent responsiveness can be achieved. As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. If the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 of the invention relating to the rate of temperature rise on the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the constitution of the recording head, in addition to the combination constitution of the discharge port, the liquid passage, and the electrothermal converter (the linear liquid passage or the right-angled liquid passage) as disclosed in the above-mentioned specifications, US Pat. No. 4,558,333, US Pat. No. 4,558,333, which discloses a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
The structure using the specification of No. 59600 is also included in the present invention. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of the electrothermal converter for a plurality of electrothermal converters, and an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy is provided. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration corresponding to the ejection portion is disclosed in JP-A-59-138461. That is, according to the present invention, recording can be surely and efficiently performed regardless of the form of the recording head.

Further, the present invention can be effectively applied to a full line type recording head having a length corresponding to the maximum width of a recording medium which can be recorded by the recording apparatus. Such a recording head may have a configuration that satisfies the length by a combination of a plurality of recording heads or a configuration as one recording head integrally formed.

In addition, even in the case of the serial type as in the above example, the recording head fixed to the apparatus main body or the electrical connection with the apparatus main body or the ink from the apparatus main body by being attached to the apparatus main body The present invention is also effective when a replaceable chip-type recording head that can be supplied or a cartridge-type recording head in which an ink tank is integrally provided in the recording head itself is used.

Further, it is preferable to add recovery means for the recording head, preliminary auxiliary means, etc., which are provided in the present invention as a configuration of the recording apparatus, because the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. . Specific examples thereof include capping means for the recording head, cleaning means, pressurizing or suctioning means, electrothermal converter or other heating element or preheating means by a combination thereof, It is also effective to perform stable recording by performing a preliminary discharge mode in which discharge is performed separately from recording.

Regarding the type and number of recording heads to be mounted, for example, only one is provided corresponding to a single color ink, or a plurality of inks having different recording colors and densities are supported. A plurality of pieces may be provided. That is, for example, the recording mode of the recording apparatus is not limited to the recording mode of only the mainstream color such as black, but it may be either the recording head is integrally formed or a plurality of combinations may be used. The present invention is also extremely effective for a device provided with at least one of full colors by color mixing.

In addition, in the above-described embodiments of the present invention, the ink is described as a liquid, but it is an ink that solidifies at room temperature or lower and that softens or liquefies at room temperature, or an ink jet system. In general, the temperature of the ink itself is adjusted within the range of 30 ° C. or higher and 70 ° C. or lower to control the temperature of the ink so that the viscosity of the ink is within the stable ejection range. Anything can be used. In addition, the temperature rise due to the thermal energy is positively prevented by using it as the energy for the state change of the ink from the solid state to the liquid state, or the ink that solidifies in the standing state is used for the purpose of preventing the evaporation of the ink. However, in any case, when heat ink is liquefied by applying heat energy according to the recording signal and liquid ink is ejected, or when the ink reaches the recording medium, it is already solidified. The present invention is also applicable to the case of using an ink that has a property of being liquefied only by energy. In this case, the ink is disclosed in JP-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60.
As described in JP-A-71260, it may be configured to face the electrothermal converter in a state of being held as a liquid or a solid in the concave portion or the through hole of the porous sheet. In the present invention, the most effective one for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

In addition, as a form of the recording apparatus provided with the recording mechanism using the liquid jet recording head of the present invention, besides the one used as an image output terminal of information processing equipment such as a computer, it is combined with a reader or the like. Copier,
Further, it may be a facsimile device having a transmitting / receiving function.

FIG. 41 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration when the recording apparatus of the present invention is applied to an information processing apparatus having a function as a word processor, a personal computer, a facsimile apparatus, a copying apparatus.

In the figure, reference numeral 1801 denotes a control unit for controlling the entire apparatus, which includes a CPU such as a microprocessor and various I / Os.
It has a port and outputs control signals, data signals, etc. to each section, and controls by inputting control signals and data signals from each section. A display unit 1802 displays various menus, document information, image data read by the image reader 1807, and the like on this display screen. A transparent pressure-sensitive touch panel 1803 is provided on the display unit 1802. By pressing the surface of the touch panel 1803 with a finger or the like, items or coordinate positions can be input on the display unit 1802.

1804 is an FM (Frequency M
sound source section, the music information created by a music editor or the like is stored in the memory section 1810 or the external storage device 18
The data is stored as digital data in 12, and is read from the memory or the like to perform FM modulation. FM
The electric signal from the sound source unit 1804 is converted into an audible sound by the speaker unit 1805. The printer unit 1806 has the recording apparatus of the present invention applied as an output terminal of a word processor, a personal computer, a facsimile apparatus, and a copying apparatus.

Reference numeral 1807 denotes an image reader section for photoelectrically reading and inputting original data, which is provided in the middle of the original feeding path and reads various originals such as facsimile originals and copy originals. The image reader unit 1808
It is a transmission / reception unit of a facsimile (FAX) that transmits the original data read in 07 by facsimile and receives and decodes the transmitted facsimile signal, and has an interface function with the outside. Reference numeral 1809 denotes a telephone unit having various telephone functions such as a normal telephone function and an answering machine function.

Reference numeral 1810 denotes a ROM for storing a system program, a manager program, other application programs, etc., a character font, a dictionary, etc.
It is a memory unit including an application program loaded from the external storage device 1812, document information, a video RAM, and the like.

Reference numeral 1811 denotes a keyboard unit for inputting document information and various commands.

An external storage device using a floppy disk, a hard disk or the like as a storage medium.
Reference numeral 12 stores document information, music or voice information, a user application program, and the like.

FIG. 42 is a schematic external view of the information processing apparatus shown in FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 1901 denotes a flat panel display using liquid crystal or the like, which displays various menus, graphic information, document information and the like. By pressing the surface of the touch panel 1803 on the display 1901 with a finger or the like, coordinate input or item designation input can be performed.
1902 is a handset used when the device functions as a telephone. The keyboard 1903 is detachably connected to the main body via a cord, and various document information and various data can be input. The keyboard 1903 is also provided with various function keys 1904 and the like. Reference numeral 1905 is an insertion port for a floppy (registered trademark) disk into the external storage device 212.

Reference numeral 1906 denotes a sheet placing section for placing an original read by the image reader section 1807. The read original is discharged from the rear of the apparatus. When receiving a facsimile, the data is recorded by the inkjet printer 1907.

In the above, the display unit 1802 is C
Although it may be RT, a flat panel such as a liquid crystal display using a ferroelectric liquid crystal is preferable. This is because in addition to being small and thin, it is possible to reduce the weight.

When the information processing apparatus functions as a personal computer or a word processor, various information input from the keyboard unit 211 is processed by the control unit 1801 according to a predetermined program, and the printer unit 18 is processed.
It is output as an image in 06.

When functioning as a receiver of a facsimile apparatus, the facsimile information input from the FAX transmission / reception unit 1808 via the communication line is received by the control unit 1801 according to a predetermined program and processed by the printer unit 1806.
Is output as a received image.

When functioning as a copying apparatus, the image reader unit 1807 reads an original document, and the read original data is transferred to the printer unit 18 via the control unit 1801.
It is output as a copied image in 06. In addition, when functioning as a receiver of a facsimile apparatus, the image reader unit 1
The document data read by 807 is the control unit 180.
After the transmission processing according to the predetermined program by 1,
It is transmitted to the communication line via the FAX transmission / reception unit 1808.

The information processing apparatus described above may be an integrated type in which an ink jet printer is built in the main body as shown in FIG. 43. In this case, the portability can be further enhanced. In the figure, parts having the same functions as those in FIG. 42 are designated by the corresponding reference numerals.

By applying the recording apparatus of the present invention to the multifunctional information processing apparatus described above, a high-quality recorded image can be obtained at high speed and with low noise, so that the function of the information processing apparatus is further improved. It becomes possible.

[0262]

According to the present invention, at least one of water resistance, light resistance, density and saturation of an image formed by ink can be improved.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided an ink jet printing method and apparatus capable of obtaining a print image having a high print density, no unevenness, weather resistance such as water resistance and light resistance, that is, good image storability. can do. Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an inkjet printing method and apparatus capable of obtaining the above-mentioned excellent print image without increasing the power supply capacity and reducing the printing speed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B are explanatory views showing problems to be solved by the present invention.

2 (a), (b) and (c) are explanatory views each showing a problem to be solved by the present invention.

3 (a), (b) and (c) are explanatory views each showing a problem to be solved by the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

5 (a) and (b) are respectively the first of the present invention.
It is explanatory drawing which compares the Example method of this, and the conventional method.

6A, 6B, and 6C are explanatory views showing a printing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

11A and 11B are explanatory diagrams showing a printing method according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

16 (a), 16 (b) and 16 (c) are explanatory views showing a printing method according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 16 (a) is a schematic view showing the internal structure of the ejection portion. 15B is a front view of the ejection portion of FIG. 11A as seen from the ejection port direction, and FIG. 11C is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing method according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing the printing method according to the seventh embodiment of the present invention, which is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of the ejection portion.

FIG. 19 is a perspective view of an inkjet printing apparatus for carrying out the printing method of the present invention.

20 is a perspective view showing an ink jet cartridge that can be mounted on the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 21 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the vicinity of the heating element of the print head mounted in the printing apparatus shown in FIG.

22 is a perspective view of the recovery unit of FIG.

23 is a block diagram showing a control configuration of the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 24 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an inkjet printing apparatus to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 25 is a partial configuration diagram of a print head used in the inkjet printing apparatus shown in FIG. 24.

FIG. 26 is a block diagram showing a control unit of the inkjet printing apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 27 is a ninth example of the inkjet printing method of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining the example of FIG.

FIG. 28 is a ninth example of the inkjet printing method of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram for explaining a modified example of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram showing a dot formation state when pixels are printed in a staggered array pattern.

FIG. 30 is a first inkjet printing method of the present invention.
It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the Example of 0.

FIG. 31 is a first inkjet printing method of the present invention.
It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the Example of 1.

FIG. 32 is a first example of the inkjet printing method of the present invention.
It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the modification of the Example of 1.

FIG. 33 is a diagram showing a twelfth embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram of a printing process of 2-pass printing by the head unit in the printing apparatus shown in FIG. 19.

34 (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) are explanatory views of an ink and a printability improving liquid mask in the inkjet printing apparatus of FIG. 19, respectively.

35 (a), (b) and (c) are explanatory views of a mask for printability improving liquid according to a thirteenth embodiment of the present invention.

36 (a), (b), (c) and (d) are explanatory views of a mask for printability improving liquid in the fourteenth embodiment of the present invention.

37 (a), (b) and (c) are explanatory views of a printability improving liquid mask in a sixteenth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 38 is an explanatory diagram of a head according to the seventeenth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 39 is a sectional view of a head according to a modification of the seventeenth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 40 is a schematic diagram illustrating a printing process by the single pass method of the present invention.

FIG. 41 is a block diagram showing an example of an information processing system using the inkjet printing apparatus of the present invention.

42 is an external perspective view of the information processing system shown in FIG. 41.

FIG. 43 is an external view showing another example of the information processing system using the inkjet printing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

20 color ink tank 21 Black ink tank 22 Discharge port surface 23 Discharge port 30 heating element 31 Printed material 32 common liquid chamber 33 substrate 34 Partition 35 ink drops 38 Piezoelectric element 100 printing device 101 carriage 102 print head 103 control head unit 104 guide axis a 105 Guide axis b 106 Printed material 107 Switch section and display element section 108 Platen 109 Feed roller 110 Recovery Unit 202 control data determining means 203 maximum ink ejection rate determining means 401 receive buffer 402 control unit 403 memory 404 Mechanical control section 405 Mechanical part 406 Sensor / SW control section 407 Sensor / SW unit 408 Display element control unit 409 Display element section 410 Print head controller 411 print head 701 ink cartridge 702 multi head 703 Paper feed roller 704 Auxiliary roller 705 paper feed roller 801 multi head

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page (72) Inventor Jiro Moriyama 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hiroshi Taka 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon (72) Inventor Minoko Kato 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Yutaka Kurabayashi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hitoshi Sugimoto 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Masaya Uetsuki 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) References JP-A-58-128862 (JP, A) JP-A-6-143616 (JP, A) JP-A-64-63185 (JP, A) JP-A-6-99576 (JP, A) (58) Survey did Field (Int.Cl. ^7, DB name) B41J 2/01 B41J 2/04 - 2/055 B41J 2/205 B41J 2/21 B41J 29/00 B41M 5/00

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a print medium by using an ink ejecting unit that ejects ink containing a color material and a liquid ejecting unit that ejects a printability improving liquid that insolubilizes or aggregates the color material in the ink. An inkjet printing method for performing printing, comprising: a scanning step of scanning the ink ejecting section and the liquid ejecting section a plurality of times with respect to a predetermined region on the print medium; and the printing between scanning in the scanning step. When transporting the medium in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction,
A carrying step of carrying the print medium by an amount equal to the width in the carrying direction of the predetermined area, and by ejecting the ink and the printability improving liquid to the predetermined area in the plurality of scans,
A printing step of completing printing of an image corresponding to the predetermined area, wherein in the printing step, the printability improving liquid is thinned out and ejected from the ejected ink, and an image corresponding to the predetermined area is ejected. As a result, the first pixel formed by ejecting the printability improving liquid so as to at least partially overlap the previously ejected ink and the printability improving liquid previously ejected at least partially overlap. A second pixel formed by ejecting the ink onto the
An inkjet printing method comprising: printing an image including a third pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid. 2. An image is printed on a print medium by using an ink ejecting section that ejects ink containing a color material and a liquid ejecting section that ejects a printability improving liquid that insolubilizes or aggregates the color material in the ink. An inkjet printing method for performing printing, comprising: a scanning step of scanning the ink ejection section and the liquid ejection section a plurality of times with respect to a predetermined area on the print medium; and a step of performing scanning between the scanning steps. When the print medium is conveyed in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction,
A carrying step of carrying the print medium by an amount equal to the width of the predetermined region in the carrying direction, and scanning the predetermined region with an image including first pixels, second pixels, and third pixels a plurality of times. And a printing step of printing with, the first pixel is a pixel formed by ejecting the printability improving liquid so that at least a part of the ejected ink overlaps with the ejected ink, The second pixel is a pixel formed by ejecting the printability-improving liquid and then ejecting the ink so that at least a part of the ejected print-improving liquid overlaps with the ejected print-improving liquid. An inkjet printing method, wherein the pixel is formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid. 3. An ink ejecting section for ejecting ink, and water resistance, light resistance, density of an image formed by the ink,
An ink jet printing method for printing an image on a print medium using a liquid ejecting section for ejecting a printability improving liquid for improving at least one characteristic of saturation, comprising: A scanning step of scanning the ink ejecting section and the liquid ejecting section a plurality of times, and in transporting the print medium in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction between scanning in the scanning step,
A carrying step of carrying the print medium by an amount equal to the width in the carrying direction of the predetermined area, and by ejecting the ink and the printability improving liquid to the predetermined area in the plurality of scans,
A printing step of completing printing of an image corresponding to the predetermined area, wherein in the printing step, the printability improving liquid is thinned out and ejected from the ejected ink, and an image corresponding to the predetermined area is ejected. As a result, the first pixel formed by ejecting the printability improving liquid so that at least a part thereof overlaps with the previously ejected ink, and the first pixel formed at least partially overlaps with the previously ejected printability improving liquid. A second pixel formed by ejecting the ink onto the
An inkjet printing method comprising: printing an image including a third pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid. 4. An ink ejecting portion for ejecting ink, and water resistance, light resistance, density of an image formed by the ink,
An ink jet printing method for printing an image on a print medium using a liquid ejecting section for ejecting a printability improving liquid for improving at least one characteristic of saturation, comprising: A scanning step of scanning the ink ejecting section and the liquid ejecting section a plurality of times, and when transporting the print medium by a predetermined amount in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction between the scanning in the scanning step. A carrying step of carrying the print medium by an amount equal to the width of the predetermined area in the carrying direction, and an image including a first pixel, a second pixel and a third pixel is provided in the predetermined area a plurality of times. A printing step of performing printing by scanning, wherein the first pixel has at least a part thereof overlapped with the ejected ink after the ejection of the ink. The second pixel is a pixel formed by ejecting the printability improving liquid, and the second pixel ejects the ink so that at least a part thereof overlaps with the ejected printability improving liquid after the ejection of the printability improving liquid. An inkjet printing method, wherein the third pixel is a pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid. 5. An image is printed on a print medium by using an ink ejecting section for ejecting ink containing a color material and a liquid ejecting section for ejecting a printability improving liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating the color material in the ink. An inkjet printing apparatus for performing printing, comprising: a scanning unit configured to scan the predetermined area on the print medium with the ink ejecting unit and the liquid ejecting unit a plurality of times; and the printing between the scanning by the scanning unit. When the medium is transported in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction, a transporting unit that transports the recording medium by an amount equal to the width of the predetermined region in the transport direction; By ejecting the ink and the printability improving liquid,
A print control means for completing printing of an image corresponding to the predetermined area, wherein the print control means thins out and ejects the printability improving liquid to the ejected ink, and corresponds to the predetermined area. As the image, a first pixel formed by ejecting the printability-improving liquid so that at least a part thereof overlaps the ink ejected earlier, and the printability-improving liquid ejected earlier at least partially An image including a second pixel formed by ejecting the ink so as to overlap and a third pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid An inkjet printing device characterized by printing. 6. An ink ejecting portion for ejecting ink, and water resistance, light resistance, density of an image formed by the ink,
An inkjet printing apparatus that prints an image on a print medium by using a liquid ejecting unit that ejects a printability improving liquid that improves at least one property of saturation, wherein: Scanning means for scanning the ink ejecting section and the liquid ejecting section a plurality of times, and when the print medium is conveyed in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction between scanning by the scanning means,
Conveying means for conveying the print medium by an amount equal to the width of the predetermined region in the transport direction, and by ejecting the ink and the printability improving liquid to the predetermined region in the plurality of scans,
A print control means for completing printing of an image corresponding to the predetermined area, wherein the print control means thins out and ejects the printability improving liquid to the ejected ink, and corresponds to the predetermined area. As the image, the first pixel formed by ejecting the printability improving liquid so that at least a part thereof overlaps the ink ejected earlier, and the printability improving liquid ejected at least partially An image including a second pixel formed by ejecting the ink so as to overlap and a third pixel formed by ejecting only the ink without ejecting the printability improving liquid An inkjet printing device characterized by printing.