	US 12,403,701 B2
	Liquid discharge apparatus, liquid discharge method, and storage medium
Kyohei Hamada, Kanagawa (JP)
Assigned to Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo (JP)
Filed by Kyohei Hamada, Kanagawa (JP)
Filed on Apr. 7, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/297,273.
Claims priority of application No. 2022-068211 (JP), filed on Apr. 18, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2023/0331001 A1, Oct. 19, 2023
Int. Cl. B41J 2/21 (2006.01); B41J 2/045 (2006.01); B41J 25/00 (2006.01); G06K 15/10 (2006.01)

CPC B41J 2/2132 (2013.01) [B41J 2/04505 (2013.01); B41J 25/001 (2013.01); G06K 15/107 (2013.01); B41J 2/04581 (2013.01)]

11 Claims

1. A liquid discharge apparatus comprising:

a recording head; and

circuitry comprising a selective-discharge mask having two or more bits,

wherein the circuitry is configured to

move the recording head relative to a recording medium in a main scanning direction while causing the recording head to discharge a liquid onto the recording medium to perform a main scanning movement operation;

move one of the recording head and the recording medium relative to another one of the recording head and the recording medium in a sub-scanning direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction while causing the recording head not to discharge the liquid to perform a sub-scanning movement operation;

alternately repeat the main scanning movement operation and the sub-scanning movement operation to perform a multi-pass printing process including a plurality of main scanning movement operations and a plurality of sub-scanning movement operations;

convert input data to dot data including two or more types of dots;

change the selective-discharge mask in accordance with types of the two or more types of dots;

convert the dot data to scan data for each of the plurality of main scanning movement operations of the multi-pass printing process using the dot data and the selective-discharge mask;

transfer the scan data to the recording head to cause the recording head to discharge the liquid according to the scan data to print an image; and

apply a first selective-discharge mask to the two or more types of dots in a first gradation region of the image to convert the dot data into the scan data, and

the first selective-discharge mask is configured to cause the recording head to

discharge the liquid as having a first discharge amount at each of end portions of the recording head, and

discharge the liquid as having a second discharge amount larger than the first discharge amount at a center portion of the recording head between the end portions of the recording head.