JPH0640042A - Device and method for ink jet recording - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To jet ink preliminarily so that the wasteful consumption of the recording material (ink) is restrained and the deterioration of the print quality of a recorded picture is prevented. CONSTITUTION:The title device is provided with an ink jet recording head 1; a preliminary pulse producing means 18 for producing a preliminary jet pulse; and a means for controlling an amount of ink to be jetted preliminarily from the ink jet recording head l, according to a printing speed at the timing of the preliminary jet pulse produced by the preliminary jet pulse producing means 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and method.

[0002]

[Prior art]

(1) Generally, in an inkjet recording apparatus, preliminary ejection of a recording material is performed before printing on a recording member. This means that during printing, depending on the printing data, not all of the nozzles of the head are used for printing, and there is a case where a specific nozzle is not used at all. In such a case, In order to prevent the water contained in the ink in the nozzle of the head from evaporating, the viscosity of the ink increasing, and the fact that the ink is not sufficiently ejected even when an ejection pulse is applied to the drive element of the nozzle during actual printing. Has been done.

The preliminary ejection amount of the recording material in the preliminary ejection is determined by the number of preliminary ejection pulses, the ejection amount of nozzles and the number of nozzles. The number of preliminary ejection pulses is appropriately determined according to the performance of the head and ink, that is, the ejection performance and the main scanning time in the inkjet recording apparatus.

Further, when printing a desired image on a recording medium, for example, in one main scan, first, preliminary ejection is performed at a predetermined position of the starting end portion, and then the desired image is printed on the actual printing portion. To do. This operation is repeated for each main scan to complete printing of one image.

FIG. 14 shows a circuit configuration of a preliminary ejection control by a conventional method, and FIG. 15 shows a timing chart showing its operation. In FIG. 14, 71 is a one-shot circuit, 1
Reference numeral 5 is a head drive circuit. A is a signal indicating the preliminary ejection position, B is a signal having a predetermined pulse width output from the one-shot circuit 71, C is an ejection pulse, D is a logical product of the signals B and C, and the ejection means of the head is used. Is a signal converted to a predetermined voltage level for driving the.

The operation of FIG. 14 will be described with reference to FIG.
The signal A is a preliminary ejection position signal, and generates one pulse each time the rotary drum makes one rotation, and the one-shot circuit 71
Entered in. The one-shot circuit 71 has a pulse width T81.
Signal B is generated. C1 is an ejection pulse signal in the case of the first printing speed, which is input to the head drive circuit 15 together with the signal B, and the signal D1 is output from the head drive circuit 15 by the logical product of both signals. The signal C2 represents the ejection pulse in the case of the second printing speed, which is about 1/2 of the first printing speed in the case of the conventional example. Therefore, the signal output from the head drive circuit 15 becomes D.
In the case of the conventional example, as shown by D1 and D2, the numbers of preliminary ejection pulses are 5 and 3, respectively, and the preliminary ejection amount is
The preliminary ejection amount at the second printing speed is smaller than the preliminary ejection amount at the first printing speed. Originally, when the printing speed is high, the preliminary ejection amount may be smaller than when the printing speed is slow, but this relationship is not preferable in the conventional example.

In the conventional example, the preliminary ejection is performed for each main scanning, but as a method for efficiently performing the preliminary ejection, for example, only when the actual printing is performed in the main scanning,
A method in which preliminary ejection is performed prior to the actual printing to prohibit preliminary ejection for main scanning without actual printing, and the presence or absence of the application of the ejection signal to the print head for a predetermined period is detected, and the number of ejection signals ( If the integrated value) is less than or equal to the set value, the method of performing preliminary ejection at the starting end portion of the next main scan is actually fair.
No. 45814.

(2) Furthermore, in an ink jet recording apparatus, for example, a method for obtaining a multi-valued image is as follows:
A dither method is described in which one pixel of an image signal is made to correspond to one pixel of binary recording, and this is binarized by a predetermined threshold value to express gradation, and JP-A-63-53052. , A plurality of droplets are landed at substantially the same location on the recording material to form one dot,
A so-called multi-droplet method can be used in which gradation is expressed by changing the number of droplets landed.

However, the head may cause ejection failure due to thickening of ink in the nozzle. Especially in the case of a multi-nozzle type recording device, even during printing,
Ejection failure may occur in a nozzle that is not frequently used. In order to solve this problem, there is known a method (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-139269) in which preliminary ejection is discretely performed on a recording material at predetermined time intervals during printing.

[0010]

In the conventional example described in the above (1), it is basically based on performing the preliminary ejection for each main scanning, and whether the presence or absence of the print data or the number of application of the ejection signal exceeds the set value. Whether or not the preliminary ejection is performed is determined depending on whether or not the preliminary ejection is performed. However, in this conventional example, a means for determining whether or not to perform preliminary ejection based on the printing data prior to the actual printing is required, which increases the cost of the apparatus. Further, in an inkjet recording apparatus having a plurality of printing speeds, there is an efficient problem in performing a constant amount of preliminary ejection regardless of the main scanning speed. I couldn't control it.

Further, according to the conventional example described in (2) above (the method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-139269), an ink having a low lightness such as black is particularly recorded on a white recording material. Contamination due to preliminary ejection becomes relatively conspicuous depending on an image to be recorded, as in the case of performing highlight printing in which the average frequency of nozzle use is low using color liquid droplets. Further, if the preliminary ejection is performed at regular intervals regardless of how often the nozzles are used, the number of preliminary ejections increases sharply with the increase in the time required for image formation, and the image quality deteriorates. .

An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus and method which solve the above problems.

[0013]

According to the present invention, an ink jet recording head, a preliminary ejection pulse generating means for generating a preliminary ejection pulse, and a printing speed at the timing of the preliminary ejection pulse from the preliminary ejection pulse generating means. According to the above, a means for controlling the amount of ink to be preliminarily ejected from the inkjet recording head is provided,
Further, when the usage condition of the inkjet recording head satisfies a predetermined condition, a preliminary droplet is ejected onto the recording material a predetermined time before the ejection of the droplet corresponding to the image signal from the nozzle of the inkjet recording head is restarted. Is discharged.

[0014]

According to the present invention, the preliminary ejection amount is controlled to a necessary minimum according to the printing speed, and it is possible to avoid wasteful consumption of the recording material and perform efficient printing. In addition, defective ejection of the head can be reliably prevented, and a high-quality image can be obtained.

[0015]

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

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, 1 is a recording head, 2 is a moving base for moving the recording head 1, 3 is a guide rail for guiding the moving base 2, 4 Is a motor for moving the movable table 2 in the direction of arrow 13,
6 is a driven pulley, 7 is a wire for converting the rotary motion of the motor 4 into a linear motion to move the moving base 2, 8 is a rotary drum, and 9 is a recording target held on the rotary drum 8 by means not shown. A medium 10 is a paper feed motor for rotating the rotating drum 8 at a predetermined speed, and 11 is a recording medium receiving portion provided in a part of the rotating drum 8 for receiving the recording medium ejected by preliminary ejection according to the present invention. To do. Reference numeral 12 denotes a cap, which prevents the recording medium from sticking by capping the ejection portion of the recording head 1 during non-printing.
Reference numeral 13 is an arrow indicating the moving direction of the moving base 2, and 14 is an arrow indicating the rotating direction of the rotary drum 8. 15 is a recording head 1
The recording head drive circuit for driving the ejecting means and the preliminary ejection control circuit 16 are provided. Reference numeral 17 denotes a paper feed motor drive circuit for driving the paper feed motor 10, and drives the paper feed motor 10 based on a signal from the motor 4 (indicated by movement of the moving table 2). Reference numeral 18 is a preliminary ejection pulse generation circuit, and 19 is a detection means for detecting the position of the receiving portion 11. A is a signal obtained from the position detecting means 19, B
Is a signal sent from the preliminary ejection control circuit to the recording head drive circuit to control the preliminary ejection amount according to the present invention, C is a signal for controlling the ejection of the recording head 1, and D is applied to the ejection means of the actual recording head. It is a signal. E is a printing speed switching signal sent from a circuit (not shown). F is a drive pulse at the time of actual printing, and G is actual printing data, which are input to the recording head drive circuit 15, and the recording head 1 is driven based on these, and actual printing is performed.

2 and 3 are diagrams for explaining the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a timing chart for the first printing speed, and FIG. 7 is a timing chart in the case of the printing speed of. Figure 3
Indicates that the printing speed is approximately twice as high as that in the case of FIG. 2A is a signal indicating the position of the receiving portion 11 of FIG. 1, and a pulse is generated for each rotation of the rotary drum 8 as the rotary drum 8 rotates. B is triggered by the signal A and is fed from the preliminary ejection control circuit 16 to the recording head drive circuit 15
Is a signal having a pulse width T22 input to. C indicates the recording head drive circuit 1 from the preliminary ejection pulse generation circuit 18 of FIG.
5, the ejection means of the recording head 1 is driven during the pulse width T23. D is a signal given to the recording head 1 from the recording head drive circuit 15 by the logical product of the signal B and the signal C, and the actual preliminary ejection is performed by this signal. The functions of the signals A to D shown in FIG. 3 are the same as those of FIG. 2, but the period T31 of the signal A and the pulse width T32 of the signal B are the period T21 of the signal A and the pulse width T2 of the signal B of FIG.
Compared to 2, it is about 1/2 according to the printing speed.

The operation according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, in the case of printing at the first printing speed, a predetermined signal is sent from the circuit (not shown) to the paper feed motor drive circuit 17, and the paper feed motor drive circuit 17 rotates the rotary drum 8 at the first printing speed. Drive the paper feed motor 10. At this time, the position detection sensor 19 that detects the position of the receiving portion 11 generates the signal A in FIG. The signal A is input to the preliminary discharge control circuit 16 to generate a preliminary discharge control signal B. The preliminary ejection control signal B is input to the recording head drive circuit 15 and outputs a preliminary ejection pulse signal D by logical product with the recording head drive pulse C output from the preliminary ejection pulse generation circuit 18. In this embodiment, the control of the preliminary ejection amount is performed according to the number of pulses, and in this embodiment, the preliminary ejection is performed with five pulses for the first printing speed as shown in D of FIG. ing. This preliminary discharge is performed on the receiving portion 11 in FIG.

FIG. 3 corresponds to the second printing speed. The operation of each signal is the same as in the case of the first printing speed, but the preliminary ejection control pulse width T3 of the signal B is used.
2 corresponds to the second printing speed and is approximately 1/2 of the preliminary ejection control pulse width of the first printing speed.
Therefore, the number of pulses of the output signal D of the recording head drive circuit 15 is three. In this embodiment, the number of preliminary ejection pulses is 5 at the first printing speed and 3 at the second printing speed.
Although the number is set, the number is appropriately set depending on the performance of the recording head and the recording medium.

FIG. 4 shows the preliminary discharge control circuit 16 shown in FIG.
A specific example of is shown. 4, 41 and 42 are single-shot ICs that generate the preliminary ejection control pulse widths T22 and T32 in FIGS. 2 and 3, and 43 and 44.
Is an AND circuit, 45 is an OR circuit, and 46 is a NOT circuit, and a circuit for selecting a preliminary ejection control signal corresponding to the printing speed is selected by 43 to 46. 47A, 47B and 48A, 48B are resistors and capacitors, respectively, which determine the preliminary ejection control pulse widths T22 and T32.

In this circuit, the position signal A is input to the single shot ICs 41 and 42 as the rotary drum 8 rotates. The single shot ICs 41 and 42 generate preliminary ejection control pulse signals having pulse widths of T22 and T32. The circuit composed of 43 to 46 outputs the preliminary ejection control signal B according to the printing speed by the printing speed selection signal E. In this embodiment, when the printing speed selection signal E is "L", the signal of B in FIG. 2 corresponding to the first printing speed is output, and the printing speed selection signal E is "H".
At this time, the signal of B in FIG. 3 corresponding to the second printing speed is output.

In the case of this embodiment, the signal C generated from the preliminary ejection pulse generation circuit 18 of FIG. 1 is constant regardless of the printing speed. Therefore, the pulse rate of the head drive signal in the actual printing subsequent to the preliminary ejection is different from the pulse rate of the signal C shown in FIGS.

(Second Embodiment) FIGS. 5 and 6 are timing charts for explaining a second embodiment of the present invention. The meanings of the signals A to D are the same as those in the first embodiment,
FIG. 5C shows a head drive pulse corresponding to the first printing speed, which is similar to the head drive pulse in actual printing. Further, C in FIG. 6 is a head drive pulse corresponding to the second printing speed and is similar to the head drive pulse in actual printing. The second printing speed is the first
It is about twice as fast as the printing speed. In this embodiment, the preliminary ejection control signals indicated by T51 of the signal B of FIG. 5 and T61 of the signal B of FIG. 6 are generated by using the signal A of FIGS. 5 and 6 as triggers, respectively, and the signal C shown in FIGS. And the respective logical products are taken to generate the signal D shown in FIGS. In this embodiment, for the first printing speed, the preliminary ejection pulse is four pulses as shown in D of FIG. 5, and for the second printing speed, it is shown in D of FIG. So it is two.

As described above, efficient preliminary discharge could be performed also in this embodiment.

As described above, according to the first and second embodiments, the preliminary ejection amount can be set optimally and efficiently by changing the preliminary ejection amount according to the printing speed. Therefore, unnecessary consumption of the recording material is suppressed, which is effective in reducing the consumption of the recording material.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 7 shows an ink jet recording apparatus according to the third, fourth, and fifth embodiments. The basic structure is the same as that of FIG. 1, but a signal input to the recording head drive circuit 20 is different. That is, 20 is a recording head drive circuit that drives the ejection means of the recording head 1 in accordance with an ejection signal,
Reference numeral 21 denotes a timing signal generating circuit, 22 denotes an ejection signal generating circuit, and the print head drive circuit 20 has an image signal output from the ejection signal generating circuit 22 at the timing of the timing signal from the timing signal generating circuit 21. The recording head 1 is driven in response to an ejection signal composed of a preliminary ejection signal to eject liquid droplets.

In the present embodiment, the case where an image is formed by the multi-droplet method is taken as an example, and the image signal input to the ejection signal generating circuit 22 is inputted from the circuit 22 to the recording head drive circuit 20. Of the droplets (hereinafter referred to as main droplets) ejected from the recording head 1 in response to the ejection signal, the preliminary droplets are ejected at the ejection timing immediately before the ejection is restarted, and the main droplets form pixels on the recording material. The preliminary droplet is landed only near the position. That is, according to the present embodiment, for example, when the nozzle is not ejected for a predetermined period of time or when a certain period of time elapses regardless of whether or not the droplet is ejected, the nozzle usage state is a predetermined condition. When the above condition is satisfied, the control signal is input to the ejection signal generation circuit 22, the preliminary ejection signal is output from the circuit 22 at the ejection timing immediately before the restart of the ejection of the droplet corresponding to the image signal, and the preliminary droplet is recorded by the recording head 1. It is ejected toward the recording material from the nozzle.

FIG. 16 shows an example in which dots are formed in the normal printing state, that is, when preliminary ejection is not carried out.
FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining the formation of the pattern of (a), and FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining the ejection signal applied to the ejection means arranged in the nozzle of the recording head 1 at that time. In FIG. 16, the direction A is the scanning direction of the carriage in the case of the serial type recording apparatus as shown in FIG. 7 in which the head is mounted on the carriage (moving table 2). In the case of the fixed line type recording apparatus, A is the feeding direction of the recording material). Also, f
₀ is the pixel formation frequency. Since preliminary discharge is not performed,
Image signals P11, P12, and P13, which match the timing signals C11, C12, and C13, are applied as ejection signals to the ejection means of the recording head from the recording head drive circuit 20 to eject main liquid droplets, and the dots d11, d12, and d13 are A, respectively. Direction, the dots d10 are formed by these three dots after completion of ink penetration. Similarly, the image signal P14 is applied by the timing signal C14, the dots d14 are formed, and the image formation is completed. Further, the image signal matched with the timing signals C15, C16, C17 is not applied, and the main liquid droplet is not ejected before the application of the image signal P11.

FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 are for explaining the discharge of the preliminary droplets according to the present embodiment when the pattern of the example of FIG. 16 is formed. Here, the nozzle satisfies a predetermined condition for ejecting the preliminary droplet, and the ejection of the main droplet is restarted by the application of the image signal P21 while the control signal is input to the ejection signal generation circuit 22. I shall. According to this embodiment, the image signals P21 and P21 for ejecting the main liquid droplets are provided.
Preliminary ejection signals Pr21, Pr22, Pr23 are applied in accordance with the timing signal immediately before the application of 22, P23, and preliminary droplets are ejected onto the recording material.

At this time, the preliminary liquid droplets land only in the vicinity of the required image pattern, preferably by overlapping a part of the liquid droplets on the image pattern and landing the image is small. Moreover, if the conditions for performing the preliminary ejection are appropriately determined, the preliminary droplets corresponding to all the preliminary ejection signals are not ejected due to the thickening of the ink in the nozzle, and the ejection of the preliminary droplets is very small. It is possible to In the case of the present embodiment, a droplet corresponding to the preliminary ejection signal R23 is ejected to form the dot dr23. The dots formed by the preliminary liquid droplets that have landed on the recording material are adjacent to or integrated with the dots d21, d22, and d23 and finally form the dot d20. Therefore, the dots formed by the preliminary liquid droplets are not isolated from the image pattern, and Since the number of impacts of the preliminary droplets themselves is small, the deterioration of the image quality due to the ejection of the preliminary droplets onto the recording material hardly occurs.

In this embodiment, the preliminary ejection signal is applied in accordance with the three timing signals immediately before the application of the image signal P21 for restarting the ejection of the main liquid droplets, but it is limited to the numerical values of this embodiment. Instead, the timing of starting the ejection of the preliminary droplets, the number of preliminary ejection signals applied, and the ejection of the preliminary droplets so that the dots of the preliminary droplets are formed in the vicinity of the dots d21, d22, and d23 of the main droplets. The effects of the present invention can also be obtained by appropriately setting the number.

(Embodiment 4) FIGS. 10 and 11 show a fourth embodiment in which the present invention is used when an image is formed by the multi-droplet method. In the present embodiment, the preliminary ejection signal is applied for a time ti of 1 / f ₀ or more, but when the droplet ejection is stopped for a long time, the dot dr i-
Except for a part such as 1 and dri, most of the preliminary liquid droplets only form the small dot group 112 and land in the vicinity of the dot d41 by the main liquid droplets, so that the image quality hardly deteriorates.

(Embodiment 5) FIGS. 12 and 13 are for explaining a fifth embodiment. In particular, this embodiment is shown in FIG.
Taking the pattern formation of 8 (b) as an example, the image signal is always applied in synchronization with the timing signal, and the dots d31, d3
When a binary image in which the size of 2 itself does not change is formed, the preliminary ejection signal is applied between the ejection timing at which the ejection of the main droplet is resumed and the normal ejection timing one or more times before that. This is an ink jet recording method in which preliminary liquid droplets are ejected onto a recording material and dots formed by the preliminary liquid droplets are formed in the vicinity of the dots formed by the main liquid droplets.

When the preliminary ejection is not performed, the image signals P31 and P are adjusted in accordance with the timing signals C31 and C32.
Only 32 is applied to form dots d31 and d32. Here, the nozzle satisfies the predetermined condition for ejecting the preliminary droplet, and the ejection of the main droplet is restarted by the application of the image signal P31 while the control signal is input to the ejection signal generation circuit 22. And According to the present embodiment, the timing signal C that determines the application timing of the image signal P31
A timing signal that is not normally used as the ejection timing of the main liquid droplet is interrupted between 31 and the timing signal C30 immediately before that, and in accordance with this, the preliminary ejection signal Pr3.
1, Pr32 is applied, and preliminary liquid droplets are ejected onto the recording material. As a result, dots dr31 and dr32 are formed. If these dots overlap dot d31,
For example, a dot d33 is formed and is indistinguishable from the dot d31. Even when they do not overlap, due to the effect of thickening of ink in the nozzles, these are smaller than the dot d31, and the distance between dr31, dr32, dr31 is smaller than d31, d32, and the image quality is degraded. Almost never.

In this embodiment, since the ejection is performed at a speed equal to or higher than the ejection driving frequency of the main liquid droplet, the ejection driving frequency during the preliminary ejection may exceed the refill frequency fr of the nozzle. In such a case, small droplets are ejected unstablely, but it is rather preferable that the preliminary droplets are small according to the idea of the present invention. In this case, the image signal P3
It is also conceivable that stable ejection of the main droplet is restarted by setting the time interval of 1 and the preliminary ejection signal Pr32 applied immediately before that to 1 / fr or more.

As is clear from the above description, according to the third, fourth, and fifth embodiments, the preliminary ejection is performed only immediately before the ejection of the main liquid droplets, the throughput of image output is not lowered, and the preliminary ejection is performed. Since stains on the image due to the droplets at that time are extremely inconspicuous, it is possible to prevent defective ejection of the droplets without degrading the image quality.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, the preliminary ejection is performed extremely efficiently, the unnecessary consumption of the recording material is suppressed, and the quality of the recorded image is not deteriorated. Moreover, it is possible to prevent defective ejection of liquid droplets.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an inkjet recording apparatus according to first and second embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a timing chart of a first printing speed for explaining the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a timing chart of a second printing speed for explaining the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of a preliminary discharge control circuit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a timing chart of a first printing speed for explaining the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a timing chart of a second printing speed for explaining the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of an inkjet recording apparatus according to third, fourth and fifth embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an applied state of an image signal for printing in the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an applied state of an image signal for printing in the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining the fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an applied state of an image signal for the embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a conventional circuit example.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a timing chart for explaining a conventional circuit example.

FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining a normal printing method using a multi-droplet method.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an applied state of an image signal for printing in FIG.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of an image pattern.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Recording Head 2 Moving Base 3 Guide Rail 4 Motor 5 Pulley 6 Pulley 7 Wire 8 Rotating Drum 9 Recording Medium 10 Paper Feed Motor 11 Receptor 12 Cap 13 Arrow 14 Arrow 15 Recording Head Drive Circuit 16 Preliminary Ejection Control Circuit 17 Paper Feed Motor drive circuit 18 Preliminary ejection pulse generation circuit 19 Receptor position detection sensor

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An inkjet recording head, a preliminary ejection pulse generating means for generating a preliminary ejection pulse, and a preliminary ejection pulse from the inkjet recording head according to the printing speed at the timing of the preliminary ejection pulse from the preliminary ejection pulse generating means. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a unit for controlling the amount of ink to be ejected. 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the speed of the preliminary discharge pulse generated from the preliminary discharge pulse generating means is constant regardless of the printing speed. 3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the preliminary ejection pulse speed generated from the preliminary ejection pulse generating means is set to a pulse speed corresponding to a printing speed. 4. When a usage state of an inkjet recording head satisfies a predetermined condition, a predetermined time before a droplet corresponding to an image signal is restarted to be ejected from a nozzle of the inkjet recording head to a recording material. An inkjet recording method, characterized in that preliminary liquid droplets are ejected. 5. A pixel formed on the recording material by the preliminary droplet and a droplet corresponding to an image signal discharged immediately after the preliminary droplet is discharged from a nozzle from which the preliminary droplet is discharged. 5. The ink jet recording method according to claim 4, wherein the pixels according to the above are adjacent to each other.