EP0730367A1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Method and system for interlaced printing
Assignee: HP Inc
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Filing: 1996-02-13
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2016-02-13
Abstract
Abstract A two-pass printing method and related printing system are disclosed. In the first pass a checkerboard pattern of 3 X 3 dot clusters are printed. After the first pass, the print medium (38) is advanced and a different group of nozzles is used to print a second pass over the same swath also using 3 X 3 dot clusters in a checkerboard pattern, which dot clusters fill in the interstitial positions left during the first pass. In this manner, all print positions are addressed by the print mode. Image data (46) received from the driver is typically segmented into square halftone cells having eight pixels per side or a multiple of eight pixels per side. The 3 X 3 dot cluster print mode provides a print mask pattern dot width that is not an integer divisor of the typical dither cell dot widths. The disclosed printing method ensures that different nozzles will be used for any pixel location in the repeating dither cells. Thus if any single nozzle is defective, the other functioning nozzle will in part hide the defect.
Inventors
- 👤 Mark S. Hickman
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-29 02:23
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N1/00; H04N1/40; H04N1/405; G; G06; G06K; G06K15/00; G06K15/02; G06K15/10; G06K15/102; G06K15/105; G06K15/107; H04N1/04; H04N1/12; H04N1/126; H04N1/128; H04N1/19; H04N1/191; H04N1/1911; H04N1/1913; H04N1/1915; H04N1/1916; H04N1/1917; G06K2215/00; G06K2215/0082; G06K2215/0094; G06K2215/101; G06K2215/111
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
143 words
A method of printing on a print medium (38) with a printhead (18, 20) according to image data (46) that has been segmented into data cells having a cell dot width. the method comprising: depositing dots onto said medium (38) in a first pass of said printhead (18, 20) according to said image data (46) in a first pattern of dot clusters; advancing said print medium (38) with respect to said printhead (18, 20); and depositing dots onto said medium (38) in a second pass of said printhead (18, 20) according to said image data (46) in a second pattern of dot clusters interleaved with and complementary in position to said first pattern; wherein said first and second patterns have a preselected pattern dot width and wherein said pattern dot width and said cell dot width are not integer factors of each other.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
21 words
A method according to claim 1, wherein said pattern dot width is not an integer divisor of said cell dot width.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
25 words
A method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said cell dot width is N X 8, where N is an integer greater than 0.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
24 words
A method according to any preceding claim, wherein each said first and second patterns have a pattern dot width of at least six dots.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
17 words
A method according to any preceding claim, wherein each said first and second patterns are checkerboard patterns.
Claim 6
Independent Claim
16 words
A method according to any preceding claim, wherein said data cells and dot clusters are square.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
139 words
A method, according to any preceding claim, of printing on a print medium (38) with an ink-jet printhead (18, 20), the method comprising: providing image data (46); halftoning said image data (46) into data cells of a preselected cell dot width; scanning said printhead (18. 20) and depositing a first pattern of dot clusters according to said image data (46) in a first pass of said printhead (18, 20); advancing said print medium (38); and scanning said printhead (18, 20) and depositing a second pattern of dot clusters according to said image data (46) in a second pass of said printhead (18, 20), said second pattern being interleaved with and complementary in position to said first pattern; wherein said first and second patterns have a pattern dot width that is not an integer divisor of said cell dot width.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
121 words
A method, according to any preceding claim, of printing on a print medium (38) with a scanning ink-jet printhead (18, 20) having an effective printhead height, the method comprising: (a) depositing a first checkerboard pattern of 3 X 3 dot clusters according to said image data (46) in a first pass of said printhead (18, 20) across said medium (38); (b) advancing said print medium (38) a portion of said effective printhead height; and (c) depositing a second checkerboard pattern of 3 X 3 dot clusters according to said image data (46) in a second pass of said printhead (18, 20) across said medium (38), said second checkerboard pattern being interleaved with and complementary in position to said first checkerboard pattern.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
43 words
A method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of: advancing said print medium (38) a portion of said swath height and repeating steps (a) through (c) to print a series of contiguous print swaths with interleaved first and second checkerboard patterns.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
197 words
A printing system, according to any preceding claim, that prints on a print medium (38) based on image data (46) that has been halftoned into data cells of a preselected cell dot width, the system comprising: a controller (44) communicatively linked to receive said halftoned image data; a medium advance assembly (22, 30) communicatively linked to said controller (44); a carriage scanning assembly (24, 34, 16) communicatively linked to said controller (44); and a printhead (18, 20) coupled to said carriage scanning assembly (24, 34, 16) and communicatively linked to said controller (44); said controller (44) being programmed to: scan said printhead (18, 20) and deposit a first pattern of dot clusters according to said image data (46) in a first pass of said printhead (18, 20); advance said print medium (38); and scan said printhead (18, 20) and deposit a second pattern of dot clusters according to said image data (46) in a second pass of said printhead (18, 20), said second pattern being interleaved with and complementary in position to said first pattern; wherein said first and second patterns have a pattern dot width that is not an integer divisor of said cell dot width.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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