US 12,141,630 B2
Image printing apparatus for suppressing a reduction in image quality at a boundary between a region where metallic ink is applied and a region where color ink is applied
Kouta Murasawa, Kanagawa (JP); Kazuya Ogasawara, Kanagawa (JP); Fumitaka Goto, Tokyo (JP); Yoshinori Mizoguchi, Tokyo (JP); Masao Kato, Kanagawa (JP); and Akitoshi Yamada, Kanagawa (JP)
Assigned to Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo (JP)
Filed by CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Jun. 6, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/833,358.
Claims priority of application No. 2021-096517 (JP), filed on Jun. 9, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0396078 A1, Dec. 15, 2022
Int. Cl. G06K 15/00 (2006.01); G06K 15/10 (2006.01); B41J 2/21 (2006.01)
CPC G06K 15/00 (2013.01) [G06K 15/10 (2013.01); G06K 15/102 (2013.01); B41J 2/2107 (2013.01); B41J 2/2135 (2013.01); B41J 2203/01 (2020.08)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An image printing apparatus comprising:
a printer including printing elements configured to apply metallic ink containing metal particles and arrayed in a first direction, and printing elements configured to apply color ink containing a color material and arrayed in the first direction;
a scanner configured to relatively scan the printer in a second direction intersecting the first direction;
a generator configured to generate dot data indicating application or non-application of the ink to each pixel for each of N scans relatively performed between the printer and a printing medium, where N is an integer of two or more; and
a controller configured to control the printer and the scanner in accordance with the dot data, generated by the generator, such that printing of an image on a unit region is completed with the N scans,
wherein the generator is configured to:
detect, based on input data, an edge pixel that is a pixel to which the metallic ink is not applied and that is adjacent to a pixel to which the metallic ink is applied,
generate, based on the input data, the dot data indicating application or non-application of the ink to each pixel for each of the N scans,
change one data in the generated dot data for an L-th scan, the one data indicating the application of the color ink to the edge pixel, to dot data for an M-th scan, where L is an integer of two or more and L<N, and M is an integer of three or more and L<M≤N, and
generate, in the dot data for an earlier scan than the M-th scan, data indicating the application of the metallic ink to a pixel adjacent to the edge pixel.