JPH09277507A - Method for ink-jet recording and apparatus for ink-jet recording - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To form a print image with high print density, excellent water resistance and no feathering and being sharp by providing a printability improving liq. to specified picture elements related to images formed by an image printing process by repeating a plurality of times. SOLUTION: An image is formed by providing an ink on a medium to be printed based on print data and in addition, a printability improving liq. for insolubilizing or agglomerating the color material in the ink is provided on the medium to be printed. In this case, the printability improving liq. is provided repeatedly a plurality of times on specified picture elements related to the formed image. Practically, a print control part 310 forms data for jetting of the printability improving liq. based on jetting data developed on a buffer 309k and stores it once in the buffers 309k and 309s and then, controls jetting operation of each head based on each data for jetting.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inkjet printing apparatus for printing an image on a print medium, and more specifically, a liquid capable of insolubilizing or aggregating a coloring material in an ink (hereinafter, this is referred to as a printing material for improving printability. The present invention relates to an inkjet printing method for ejecting a liquid) and an inkjet printing apparatus.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be applied to all devices using various print media such as paper, cloth, non-woven fabric, and OHP paper, and specific applicable devices include, for example, printers, copiers, facsimiles, and other office equipment and industrial production equipment. Etc. can be mentioned.

[0002]

BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, paper, cloth, plastic sheet, OH
Since an inkjet printing apparatus that prints on a print medium such as a P sheet (hereinafter also simply referred to as recording paper) can perform high-density and high-speed printing, output means of an information processing system, For example, it is used as a printer as an output terminal of a copying machine, a facsimile, an electronic typewriter, a word processor, a workstation, or a handy or portable printer provided in a personal computer, a host computer, an optical disk device, a video device, etc. Has been converted.

In this case, the ink jet printing apparatus has a configuration corresponding to the functions and usage patterns peculiar to these apparatuses. Generally, an inkjet printing apparatus includes an inkjet head (hereinafter, also simply referred to as a head) and a carriage on which an ink tank is mounted, a transport unit that transports recording paper, and a control unit that controls these. Then, a head having a plurality of ejection ports and ejecting ink droplets from these is made to scan (scan) in a direction (main scanning direction) orthogonal to the conveyance direction (sub-scanning direction) of the recording paper, and during this scanning, For example, the recording paper is intermittently conveyed in an amount equal to the print width of one scan.

Such a printing method is one in which ink is ejected onto a recording sheet in accordance with a print signal to perform printing, and it is widely known as a printing method which has a low running cost and produces little noise during a printing operation. There is. Further, by using a head in which a large number of ejection ports for ejecting ink are arranged in the sub-scanning direction, it is possible to increase the print width in one scanning and achieve high speed of the overall printing operation. .

Further, in the case of a color ink jet printing apparatus, a color image is formed by superposing ink droplets ejected by a plurality of heads provided corresponding to each color ink. Generally, when performing color printing, three primary colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) or black (B
4 types of heads and ink tanks corresponding to 4 colors including k) are required. In recent years, a device equipped with such a head of 3 to 4 colors and capable of forming a full-color image has been put into practical use.

[0006]

However, when an image is obtained on a print medium, which is 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 obtaining a color image, it is not possible to combine a high-density image that does not cause feathering and an image that does not cause bleeding between colors, and obtain a color image with good image fastness and good quality. Was difficult.

As a method for 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 insufficient, and since such an ink is in principle difficult to dissolve in water after drying, clogging of the ink discharge port of the head is likely to occur. There is a problem that the device configuration becomes complicated in order to prevent it.

On the other hand, many techniques for improving the robustness of printed matter have been proposed. For example, JP
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 3-24486 discloses a technique of lake-fixing a dye by post-treating the dye in order to enhance the wet fastness of the dye. In addition, JP-A-54-
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 43733 discloses a method of printing using two or more components that use an ink jet method to increase the film forming ability at room temperature or when they are in contact with each other, and each component contacts on a print medium. As a result, a printed matter having a strongly adhered coating film is obtained. further,
JP-A-55-150396 (JP-B-62-381)
Japanese Patent No. 55) also discloses a method of applying a water-proofing agent that forms a lake with a dye after printing with an aqueous dye ink.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-128862 discloses an ink jet printing method in which the position of an image to be printed is identified and the printing ink and the processing ink are superposed and printed. The processing ink is ejected to the range of the image to be printed prior to the ejection of, or conversely, the processing ink is superimposed on the image previously printed with the printing ink, and further,
A method is disclosed in which the printing ink is superposed on the previously ejected processing ink, and further the processing ink is superposed and ejected. In such a conventional example, it is possible to improve the water resistance of a printed image and form a color image without bleeding between colors in the image.

However, one of the factors that deteriorate the character quality is what is called feathering, in which the ink spreads unevenly in the gaps between the fibers of the paper due to the capillary force. Even if the treatment liquid for improving the water resistance is applied only to the region, the feathering could not be sufficiently prevented.

The present invention has been proposed in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to obtain a sharp print image having high print density, excellent water resistance, and no feathering. An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet printing method and an inkjet printing apparatus that can perform the above.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ink jet printing method in which ink is applied to a print medium for printing, and the print medium is printed on the print medium based on print data. An image printing step of forming an image by applying ink, and a printability improving liquid applying step of applying a printability improving liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating a coloring material in the ink onto a print medium, The printability improving liquid may be applied to a predetermined pixel associated with an image formed by the image printing step, a plurality of times.

Further, an ink ejection head for ejecting ink and a printability improving liquid ejection head for ejecting a printability improving liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating a coloring material in the ink ejected by the ink ejection head are used to form a print medium. In an inkjet printing apparatus that performs printing by ejecting ink and the printability improving liquid, a data creation unit that creates printability improving liquid data for ejecting the printability improving liquid at least to the peripheral pixels of the image to be printed is provided. However, it is characterized in that the printability improving liquid is discharged so as to be overlapped a plurality of times on a predetermined pixel related to the image to be printed.

With the above arrangement, the printability improving liquid is applied to a predetermined pixel associated with the print image forming region a plurality of times, so that the printability improving liquid uniformly permeates the print medium, Similarly, the reaction with the ink penetrating into the printing medium is surely performed.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic structure of an ink jet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The printer according to this embodiment has a head 1s for ejecting a treatment liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating the dye in the ink (also referred to as a printability improving liquid) and a head 1k for ejecting black ink. A carriage 2 on which is mounted, a flexible cable 3 for sending an electric signal from the printer body to each head, a cap unit 4 that functions as a part of a discharge recovery mechanism, and a print medium that is fed to a print area. A paper feed tray 8 for storing the recording paper 7 of FIG. In addition, the cap unit 4 is
Cap members 5s, 5 corresponding to the heads 1s and 1k
The wiper blade 6 is made of a material such as k and rubber. In the printer of the present embodiment having such a configuration, the heads 1s and 1k are orthogonal to the direction in which the recording paper 7 is conveyed, which is indicated by the arrow A in the figure, that is, the main scanning direction (indicated by the arrow B in the figure). ) To perform printing with a width corresponding to the ejection opening array width of each head), while the recording paper 7 is intermittently conveyed during the scanning with a feed amount equal to the print width. In the above-described printing operation, the arrangement of each head, the driving order of each head, and the like are configured such that black ink for forming an image is ejected after ejecting the printability improving liquid.

Each of the heads 1s and 1k has 64 discharge ports, and about 40 discharge ports from each of the heads 1s.
ng of the printability improving liquid is ejected, and about 80 ng of black (Bk) ink is ejected from each ejection port of the head 1k.
These heads use thermal energy to eject the printability improving liquid or ink (uses the film boiling phenomenon).
Accordingly, a method (so-called bubble jet method) in which bubbles are generated in the printability improving liquid or the ink to discharge the droplets is adopted. This type of head is capable of high-resolution printing because the liquid ejection ports can be arranged at high density.
In addition, since it is possible to generate bubbles in the ink in the liquid path in a one-to-one correspondence by the drive electric pulse signal, and to make it possible to immediately and appropriately grow and contract the bubbles,
In particular, it is possible to achieve droplet ejection with excellent responsiveness.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of electric control of the above-mentioned ink jet printer.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 301 denotes a system controller for controlling the entire printer,
Inside, a microprocessor, a storage element (ROM) in which a control program is stored, a storage element (RAM) used when the microprocessor performs processing, and the like are arranged. Reference numeral 302 indicates a driver that drives a carriage motor 304 to scan the head in the main scanning direction, and reference numeral 303 similarly indicates a driver that drives a paper feed motor 305 for conveying the recording paper in the sub scanning direction. .

Reference numeral 306 indicates a host computer, which performs processing such as transferring information to be printed to the printer of this embodiment. Reference numeral 307 denotes a reception buffer for temporarily storing the data from the host computer 306, and stores the data until the system controller 301 reads the data. Reference numeral 308 indicates a frame memory for expanding data such as an image to be printed into image data, and has a memory size for printing.
In this embodiment, one recording sheet can be stored, but the application of the present invention is not limited to the size of the frame memory.

Reference numerals 309s and 309k denote print buffers for temporarily storing the data obtained by converting the image data stored in the frame memory 308 into the ejection data for each head. Reference numeral 310
Shows a print control unit for appropriately controlling each head according to a command from the system controller 301, and sends ejection data and control data to the driver 311 to control the ejection of the heads 1s and 1k.
The print control unit 310 also creates data for ejecting the printability improving liquid to be sent to the head 1s.

In the above configuration, first, the image data is transferred from the host computer 306 to the reception buffer 307 and temporarily stored therein. Next, the stored image data is read by the system controller 301 and developed in the buffer 309k as black ink ejection data. The print control unit 310 has a buffer 309.
Data for ejecting the printability-improving liquid is created as described later based on the ejection data developed in k, and is temporarily stored in the buffer 309s. And each buffer 30
The ejection operation of each head is controlled based on each ejection data in 9k and 309s.

In the following, generation of ejection data of a printability improving liquid (hereinafter also referred to as a processing liquid) based on the configuration of the printer will be described.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the injection position of the treatment liquid in the present embodiment, and FIG. 3A shows the ejection data of black ink or the printing result. The example of the diagram is 6 pixels. A filling pattern for ejecting black ink is shown in the entire area of × 6 pixels, and FIG. 3B similarly shows ejection data or an ejection result of the treatment liquid. FIG.
3C shows an actual print result obtained by synthesizing FIGS. 3A and 3B. As is clear from this figure, the treatment liquid is along the contour of the original image (black ink print image), It is ejected to the outer one pixel.

FIG. 4 shows the flow of creating the processing liquid discharge data.

When this process is started, in step S1,
The image data transferred from the host computer 306 and stored in the reception buffer 307 is read. Next, in step S2, peripheral pixels along the contour of the image to be printed are detected from the read original data. Further, in step S3, the black (B
The data of k) is converted into discharge data and the buffer 309k
Further, based on the black data, the data for one pixel along the contour of the image or the like indicated by this data is expanded in the buffer 309s as the processing liquid data of the surrounding pixels obtained in step S2. Subsequently, in step S4, a printing operation is performed based on the Bk ejection data and the processing liquid ejection data in each line buffer.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the sequence of the peripheral pixel detection processing in step S2 shown above. First,
Bold data 50b is created by expanding the original print data 50 (Bk image data in this embodiment) stored in the frame memory 308 by 1 bit vertically and horizontally. For this creation, for example, the original data 50 is ORed with the original data 50 whose address is shifted upward in the original data, and this is done in four directions of up, down, left, and right to create data 50b in which one pixel is bolded vertically and horizontally. To be done. By performing this process for several pixels in each direction, data obtained by bolding several pixels vertically and horizontally can be obtained.

On the other hand, the inverted data 50i obtained by inverting the original data 50 is also created. By taking the AND of the bold data 50b thus obtained and the inversion data 50i, it is possible to obtain the data 50P of the surrounding pixels regarding the processing liquid. As described above, it is possible to control the width of the surrounding pixels on which the processing liquid is ejected by changing the bold amount for the original data.

By the way, when plain paper or the like is used as the recording paper and an image is printed only with black ink on the recording paper, the capillaries are caused by the gaps between the fibers of the recording paper and the like, as described above, especially at the edge portion of the printed image. The phenomenon may cause feathering in which the ink penetrates like a beard. On the other hand, by applying the treatment liquid to the periphery of the edge portion, the dye in the ink attempting to permeate between the fibers reacts with the treatment liquid to cause aggregation or insolubilization and suppress feathering. . However, when the treatment liquid applied to the periphery of the edge portion permeates the recording paper, it does not permeate uniformly, and therefore the distribution of the permeated treatment liquid may be uneven. Therefore, even if the treatment liquid is simply applied around the image, feathering may occur.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the processing liquid is discharged twice or more over the peripheral pixels of the black image detected as described above. FIGS. 6A to 6C are schematic diagrams showing print examples when the treatment liquid is ejected twice to the surrounding pixels.

First, as shown in FIG. 6A, in the first scan, the treatment liquid is ejected to each one pixel around the original black image, and as shown in FIG. 6B, Even in the second scan, only the treatment liquid is ejected to the same pixel as in the first scan. Further, in the third scanning, as shown in FIG. 6C, the treatment liquid is ejected to the surrounding pixels, and the black ink is ejected to the pixels forming the image data.

By performing the above printing,
A sharp image without feathering can be obtained. It is considered that this is because, as in the present embodiment, the processing liquid is ejected to the surrounding pixels a plurality of times (three times in the example in the figure), so that the distribution of the processing liquid that permeates into the recording paper is eliminated. . 7 and 8 are conceptual diagrams.

FIG. 7 shows a case where the treatment liquid is injected into the recording liquid in a plurality of times as in the present embodiment, and FIG. 8 shows a case where the treatment liquid is injected once so that the same injection amount is obtained. Show.

In the case shown in FIG. 8, the treatment liquid spreads both in the direction parallel to the recording paper surface and in the thickness direction of the recording paper, as shown in FIG. Therefore, it is considered that the distribution state becomes coarse. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7, when the treatment liquid is applied in a plurality of times, the succeeding treatment liquid is superposed on the dot in which the treatment liquid ejected earlier has been evaporated and fixed to a certain extent, and thus the treatment liquid is ejected at one time. It is considered that the dots are not widely spread as compared with the above-mentioned and the distribution state of the treatment liquid is more dense. That is, even when the same amount of the treatment liquid is ejected to the surrounding pixels, the ejection of the treatment liquid in the recording paper becomes denser when the ejection is performed plural times rather than once. The occurrence of feathering that extends like a mustache is suppressed.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a specific print operation in this embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows the arrangement of the ejection openings of the heads 1s and 1k for ejecting the black ink and the treatment liquid (the number of ejection openings is eight for convenience of explanation), and each head is arranged from the upper side. The figure seen through is shown. Here, the head 1s that ejects the treatment liquid and the head 1k that ejects the black ink are each divided into two regions, only the treatment liquid is ejected in the lower region, and the treatment liquid and the black ink are ejected in the upper region. Both are ejected for printing. That is, the black ink is not always ejected in the lower area, and the image is completed by feeding the paper half the ejection opening array width of each head for each scan.

As a result, in each print area having a width half the ejection opening array width on the recording paper 7, the image to be printed by the first scan of each area (6 pixels in the example of FIG. 6). The treatment liquid is ejected from the lower half ejection port of the head 1s to each pixel surrounding a (filling pattern image of x6 pixels), and in the next second scanning, the ejection port and the head of the upper half of the head 1k are ejected. The treatment liquid and the black ink are ejected from the ejection ports of the upper half of 1 s, respectively, and the treatment liquid is applied to the same pixel as in the first scanning, and the black ink is applied to the pixel corresponding to the image to be printed. . In the third scanning, the upper half of the image to be printed is printed in the same manner as the second scanning.

In the example shown in the figure, the image to be printed is a square pixel having a size corresponding to the ejection port array width of each head for the sake of simplicity, but the image to be printed has such a size and shape. Of course, the present invention is not limited to this, and accordingly, the same printing operation as described above is performed in each scan.

Data is supplied in the above printing operation as follows. Print buffer 30 for each scan
Black ink data and processing liquid data for one scan (one line) stored in 9k and 309s are read and transferred to the head driver, but this transfer is shifted by four ejection ports (half of the ejection port array). In the next scan, the data is transferred in a form shifted by four ejection ports. Along with this, mask processing is always performed on the black ink data corresponding to the area 1 of the head. As a result, the treatment liquid is ejected twice on the same pixel for one peripheral pixel by two different scans, and the interior of the treatment liquid is printed with black ink.

As a modified example of the above embodiment, the Bk image is masked in a zigzag pattern in the first scan to be thinned and printed, and the Bk data is scanned in a reverse zigzag mask in the second scan. Thin out so that phase interpolation is performed for each
The treatment liquid data may not be thinned out in any of the regions 1 and 2. The printing operation at that time is shown in FIG.

By printing the Bk data in such a position as to complement each other by a plurality of different scans,
The Bk image is completed in the same region by two different types of nozzles, and it is possible to obtain a high-quality image without density unevenness.

The number of times the treatment liquid is superposed is not particularly limited to two, and may be three or more. At that time, it is sufficient to print the image that was completed in two scans as described above more times than this. In this case, the number of overlaps is preferably 2 to 4 times, and if it is more than that, not only the processing liquid cannot be absorbed by the recording paper, but also the throughput is considerably reduced.

The surrounding pixels are not limited to one pixel, and may be two or more pixels. Considering landing deviation of ink dots, the number of pixels is preferably 1 to 3 pixels in the periphery.
Even if the number of pixels is four or more, the effect does not change so much, and the treatment liquid is wasted.

Further, not only the surroundings but also several pixels inside the original image may be included as shown in FIG.

Further, there may be provided means for determining whether or not the data to be recorded is a character, and such processing may be carried out only when the character data requires sharpness.

In addition, in the above embodiment, a monochrome ink jet printing apparatus using only Bk ink as a printing ink has been described, but the present invention is not particularly limited to this, and a color ink jet printing apparatus using a plurality of color inks can be used. It is applicable even in the case. In the case of a color inkjet printing apparatus, such processing may be performed only on Bk image data, or such processing may be performed on data of colors other than black. further,
The printing is not limited to unidirectional printing, but may be bidirectional printing.

Here, an example of the formulation of the ink and the treatment liquid used in this embodiment will be shown below.

Y ink Glycerin 5.0% by weight Thiodiglycol 5.0% by weight Urea 5.0% by weight Acetynol EH 1.0% by weight (Kawaken Fine Chemicals Co., Ltd.) 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 1.0 wt% (Kawaken Fine Chemicals Co., Ltd.) 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 1.0% by weight (Kawaken Fine Chemicals Co., Ltd.) 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 2 3.0 Weight% Water 78.0 weight% Treatment liquid Polyallylamine hydrochloride 5.0 weight% Benzalkonium chloride 1.0 weight% Diethylene glycol 10.0 weight% Acetinol EH 0.5 weight% (Kawaken Fine Chemical Co., Ltd.) Water 83 0.5% by weight Here, an example in which a dye is used as a color material for Y, M, C, Bk inks is shown, but the invention is not limited to this, for example, a pigment is used as a color material, or a dye and a pigment. It may be a mixture of the above. The same effect can be obtained by using an optimum treatment liquid in which each ink containing a color material aggregates.

In the above-described embodiment, a plurality of treatment liquids are applied only to the pixels around the original data, and the treatment liquids are printed without being printed on the original dots. However, in order to not only suppress feathering but also improve water resistance, the treatment liquid may be injected onto the Bk print image. In other words, the processing liquid data can be expanded and printed as it is in the buffer as it is by bolding the original data by extending it by 1 bit in the vertical and horizontal directions. As a result, the treatment liquid is also injected onto the printed image, so that complete water resistance can be obtained and a sharp image without feathering can be obtained.

Further, as a modified example thereof, it is possible to overlap the processing liquid only on the peripheral pixels of the original image a plurality of times and to apply the processing liquid only once on the original data. In this case, as shown in FIG. 12, the data of the two types of processing liquids are expanded in the buffer.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining the flow of creating the processing liquid data at that time. The processing liquid data is developed by processing only the surrounding processing liquid data 51P obtained by ANDing the data obtained by reversing the original data with the data obtained by reversing the original data, and the processing liquid data 52P that is obtained by making the original data bold. However, there are two kinds of processing liquid data. in this case,
The data 51P is sent to the area 1 and the data 52P is sent to the area 2 of the divided areas of the treatment liquid head. This makes it possible to reduce the amount of processing liquid to be injected onto the original data only by the amount that the processing liquid cannot be overlapped multiple times. Further, in order to obtain water resistance, it is not necessary to apply the treatment liquid to all the pixels on the original data, and the treatment liquid data on the original data may be thinned out without thinning out the data of the surrounding pixels.

(Others) It should be noted that the present invention includes a means (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) for generating thermal energy as energy used for performing ink ejection, particularly in an ink jet recording system. An excellent effect is obtained in a recording head and a recording apparatus of a type in which the state of ink is changed by the thermal energy. This is because according to such a method, it is possible to achieve higher density and higher definition of recording.

The typical configuration and principle are described in, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4,740.
It is preferable to use the basic principle disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent No. 796. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
Although it can be applied to any type of continuous type, in particular, in the case of the on-demand type, it can be applied to a sheet holding liquid (ink) or an electrothermal converter arranged corresponding to the liquid path. By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recorded information and giving a rapid temperature rise exceeding the nucleate boiling, heat energy is generated in the electrothermal transducer, and film boiling occurs on the heat acting surface of the recording head. Liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal on a one-to-one basis.
This is effective because air bubbles inside can be formed. The liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection opening by the growth and contraction of the bubble to form at least one droplet. When the drive signal is formed into a pulse shape, the growth and shrinkage of the bubble are performed immediately and appropriately, so that the ejection of a liquid (ink) having particularly excellent responsiveness can be achieved, which is more preferable. 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 configuration of the recording head, in addition to the combination of the discharge port, the liquid path, and the electrothermal converter (linear liquid flow path or right-angled liquid flow path) as disclosed in the above-mentioned specifications, U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333 and U.S. Pat. No. 44,558 which disclose a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
A configuration using the specification of Japanese Patent 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 on which a recording apparatus can record. 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 described above, the recording head fixed to the apparatus main body or the electric connection with the apparatus main body and the ink from the apparatus main body can be provided by being mounted on 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 provided integrally with the recording head itself is used.

It is preferable to add a recording head ejection recovery unit, a preliminary auxiliary unit, and the like as the configuration of the recording apparatus of the present invention because the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. If these are specifically mentioned, the recording head is heated using capping means, cleaning means, pressurizing or suction means, an electrothermal transducer, another heating element or a combination thereof. Pre-heating means for performing the pre-heating and pre-discharging means for performing the discharging other than the recording can be used.

Regarding the type and number of recording heads to be mounted, for example, in addition to the recording head having only one corresponding to a single color ink, it corresponds to a plurality of inks having different recording colors and densities. A plurality 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 an apparatus provided with at least one of full-color recording modes by color mixing.

In addition, in the above-described embodiments of the present invention, the ink is described as a liquid, but an ink that solidifies at room temperature or lower and that softens or liquefies at room temperature may be used. Or, in the inkjet method, it is common to control the temperature of the ink itself within the range of 30 ° C. or more and 70 ° C. or less to control the temperature so that the viscosity of the ink is within the stable ejection range. Sometimes, a liquid ink may be used. In addition, the temperature rise due to thermal energy is positively prevented by using it as the energy of the state change from the solid state of the ink to the liquid state, or in order to prevent the evaporation of the ink, it is solidified and heated in the standing state. You may use the ink liquefied by. In any case, by applying heat energy such as ink that is liquefied by applying heat energy according to the recording signal and liquid ink is ejected or that begins to solidify when it reaches the recording medium. The present invention can be applied to the case where an ink having a property of being liquefied for the first time is used. In this case, the ink is
JP-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60-7
As described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1260, it is also possible to adopt a form in which the sheet is opposed to the electrothermal converter in a state where it is held as a liquid or solid substance in the concave portion or 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, the form of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention is not only used as an image output terminal of an information processing apparatus such as a computer, but also for a copying apparatus combined with a reader or the like, and a facsimile apparatus having a transmitting / receiving function. It may take a form.

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention, the printability improving liquid is applied to a predetermined pixel associated with the print image forming region a plurality of times. It ensures a reaction with the ink which penetrates uniformly into the medium and likewise penetrates into the printing medium.

As a result, it becomes possible to print a sharp image in which feathering is effectively suppressed and an image having good water resistance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an inkjet printing apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control unit of the inkjet printing apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a treatment liquid discharge position in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing of print data according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow of creating processing liquid data in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a printing method according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing a distribution state in a recording paper when a treatment liquid is ejected in plural times.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing a distribution state in the recording paper when the treatment liquid is ejected once.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a specific print operation in the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a printing operation according to a modified example of the first embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a modified example of the discharge position of the processing liquid in the first embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing processing of print data according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a flow of creation of treatment liquid data in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1s, 1k Head 2 Carriage 7 Recording paper 301 System controller 302, 303 Driver 307 Receive buffer 308 Frame memory 309s, 309k Print buffer 310 Print control unit 311 Driver

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Minoko Kato 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An inkjet printing method for applying ink to a print medium for printing, comprising: an image printing step of forming an image by applying the ink on the print medium based on print data; A printability improving liquid applying step of applying a printability improving liquid for insolubilizing or aggregating the coloring material therein onto the print medium, wherein the printability improving liquid is an image formed by the image printing step. An inkjet printing method, wherein a plurality of pixels are applied to a predetermined pixel related to a plurality of times. 2. The inkjet printing method according to claim 1, wherein formation of an image in the image printing step is completed after the printability improving liquid is applied to the predetermined pixel in plural times. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined pixels to which the printability improving liquid is applied a plurality of times are at least pixels around the image formed by the printing step. Inkjet printing method. 4. The predetermined pixel to which the printability improving liquid is applied a plurality of times is a peripheral pixel of an image formed by the printing step using at least black ink. The inkjet printing method described. 5. The inkjet according to claim 3, wherein the predetermined pixels to which the printability improving liquid is applied a plurality of times are at least peripheral pixels of a character formed by the printing step. How to print. 6. An ink ejection head for ejecting ink,
Printing is performed by ejecting the ink and the printability-improving liquid onto a print medium using a printability-improving liquid ejecting head that ejects a printability-improving liquid that insolubilizes or aggregates the coloring material in the ink ejected by the ink ejecting head. In an inkjet printing apparatus, a data creation unit that creates printability improving liquid data for ejecting the printability improving liquid to at least pixels around an image to be printed is provided, and a predetermined pixel related to the image to be printed is provided. An inkjet printing apparatus, wherein a printability improving liquid is ejected so as to be superposed a plurality of times. 7. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined pixels on which the printability improving liquid is applied a plurality of times are at least pixels around the image to be printed. 8. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the predetermined pixels on which the printability improving liquid is superposed a plurality of times are at least peripheral pixels of an image to be printed with black ink. 9. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image to be printed is characters. 10. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising means for creating a plurality of types of printability improving liquid ejection data. 11. The printability-improving liquid ejection head has a plurality of ejection ports, the ejection regions of the plurality of ejection ports are divided, and different ejection data is transferred corresponding to each region. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the inkjet printing apparatus is an inkjet printing apparatus. 12. The ink discharge head and the printability improving liquid discharge head generate bubbles in the ink or the printability improving liquid by utilizing thermal energy, and the ink or the printability improving liquid is generated by the generation of the bubbles. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the inkjet printing apparatus ejects the ink.