Inkjet printing apparatus and inkjet printing method

摘要

It is an object of this invention to provide an inkjet printing apparatus that can print an image with high uniformity in image clarity and gloss level irrespective of the gradation value of the image. The print head of this invention can eject color inks and an image quality improvement liquid that changes at least the gloss level or image clarity of the image. The print head scans over same print areas of a print medium to form an image and at the same time applies the image quality improvement liquid onto the image. A control unit raises the volume of the image quality improvement liquid applied to unit areas in a relatively subsequent scan to the volume of the image quality improvement liquid applied to unit areas in a relatively preceding scan at a rate that corresponds to the volume of the color ink applied to the unit areas.

主权项

1. An inkjet printing apparatus comprising:
a print head configured to: (i) eject a plurality of kinds of color inks with mutually different colors, each ink containing a colorant, in accordance with image data of an image to be formed on a print medium, and (ii) eject an image quality improvement liquid for changing a gloss level or image clarity, wherein the print head is further configured to be scanned over a unit area of the print medium a plurality of times to form an image on the print medium with the color inks and to apply the image quality improvement liquid; a determining unit configured to determine a number of kinds of color inks used for printing in the unit area based on image data, of the image, corresponding to the unit area; and a control unit configured to control a volume of the image quality improvement liquid applied to the unit area by the print head in each of the plurality of scans by determining a permitted volume of the image quality improvement liquid to be applied to the unit area in each of the plurality of scans according to the number of kinds of color inks determined by the determining unit.