Printing apparatus and printing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9162473-B2
Application number	US-201414259956-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2014
Priority date	Jun 10, 2011
Publication date	Oct 20, 2015
Grant date	Oct 20, 2015

Abstract

A printing apparatus including a head section which discharges a color ink which is cured due to irradiation of light and a clear ink which is cured due to the irradiation of light, an irradiation section which irradiates the light, and a storage section which stores a relationship between a total amount of color duty which is an amount of the color ink which is discharged per unit region and clear duty which is an amount of the clear ink which is discharged per unit region, and glossiness of an image which is printed using the color ink and the clear ink which have been discharged, wherein, according to the color duty in a certain region in the image, the clear duty in the region is determined based on the relationship so that the glossiness of the image is a predetermined value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printing apparatus comprising:
a head section which discharges a color ink which is curable by irradiation of light and a clear ink which is curable by irradiation of light;
an irradiation section which irradiates the light;
a setting section which sets a target glossiness to be used as target; and
a storage section which stores a relationship between a total amount of color duty which is related to an amount of the color ink which is discharged per unit region and clear duty which is related to an amount of the clear ink which is discharged per unit region, and glossiness of an image which is printed using the color ink and the clear ink which have been discharged,
wherein the head section changes an amount of the clear ink which is discharged onto a medium according to the target glossiness, the relationship between the color duty and clear duty, and the color duty of the image.

2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the setting section sets a value of the target glossiness to be lower than a value of glossiness of the medium.

3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the relationship has a first relationship, where there is the clear duty which corresponds to an entire range where the color duty varies, and a second relationship, where there is no clear duty which corresponds to a predetermined range where the color duty varies, when an image is printed with a predetermined glossiness, and a value based on the first relationship out of a plurality of clear duties is determined as the clear duty which is used when printing in a case where there is a plurality of the clear duties which correspond to a certain size of the color duty based on the first relationship and the second relationship.

4. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the relationship has a first relationship, where there is the clear duty which corresponds to an entire range where the color duty varies, and a second relationship, where there is no clear duty which corresponds to a predetermined range where the color duty varies, when an image is printed with a predetermined glossiness, and a value which is the smallest out of a plurality of clear duties is determined as the clear duty which is used when printing in a case where there is a plurality of the clear duties which correspond to a certain size of the color duty based on the first relationship and the second relationship.

5. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the relationship has a first relationship, where there is the clear duty which corresponds to an entire range where the color duty varies, and a second relationship, where there is no clear duty which corresponds to a predetermined range where the color duty varies, when an image is printed with a predetermined glossiness, and the clear duty which is used when printing is set to zero in a range where there is no clear duty which corresponds to the color duty in a case where the clear duty which is used when printing is determined based on the second relationship.

6. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, with regard to a test pattern with a plurality of types of patches which are formed while changing each of the color duty and the clear duty using the printing apparatus, the relationship is determined by examining the combination of the color duty and the clear duty when the glossiness value is a predetermined amount based on the glossiness which is measured for each of the plurality of types of patches.

7. A printing method comprising:
setting a target glossiness to be used as target;
discharging a color ink which is cured due to irradiation of light and a clear ink which is cured due to the irradiation of light;
irradiating the light; and
storing a relationship between a total amount of color duty which is related to an amount of the color ink which is discharged per unit region and clear duty which is related to an amount of the clear ink which is discharged per unit region, and glossiness of an image which is printed using the color ink and the clear ink which have been discharged,
wherein the amount of the clear ink which is discharged onto a medium is changed according to the target glossiness, the relationship between the color duty and clear duty, and the color duty of the image.

8. The printing method according to claim 7 , wherein the value of the target glossiness is set to be lower than a value of glossiness of the medium.

9. The printing method according to claim 7 , wherein the relationship has a first relationship, where there is the clear duty which corresponds to an entire range where the color duty varies, and a second relationship, where there is no clear duty which corresponds to a predetermined range where the color duty varies, when an image is printed with a predetermined glossiness, and a value based on the first relationship out of a plurality of clear duties is determined as the clear duty which is used when printing in a case where there is a plurality of the clear duties which correspond to a certain size of the color duty based on the first relationship and the second relationship.

10. The printing method according to claim 7 , wherein the relationship has a first relationship, where there is the clear duty which corresponds to an entire range where the color duty varies, and a second relationship, where there is no clear duty which corresponds to a predetermined range where the color duty varies, when an image is printed with a predetermined glossiness, and a value which is the smallest out of a plurality of clear duties is determined as the clear duty which is used when printing in a case where there is a plurality of the clear duties which correspond to a certain size of the color duty based on the first relationship and the second relationship.

11. The printing method according to claim 7 , wherein the relationship has a first relationship, where there is the clear duty which corresponds to an entire range where the color duty varies, and a second relationship, where there is no clear duty which corresponds to a predetermined range where the color duty varies, when an image is printed with a predetermined glossiness, and the clear duty which is used when printing is set to zero in a range where there is no clear duty which corresponds to the color duty in a case where the clear duty which is used when printing is determined based on the second relationship.

12. The printing method according to claim 7 , wherein, with regard to a test pattern with a plurality of types of patches which are formed while changing each of the color duty and the clear duty using the printing apparatus, the relationship is determined by examining the combination of the color duty and the clear duty when the glossiness value is a predetermined amount based on the glossiness which is measured for each of the plurality of types of patches.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Wada Hiroshi
• Takahashi Toru
• Kondo Takamitsu
• Tanase Kazuyoshi

Classifications

• B41J2/2117

  Ejecting white liquids · CPC title

• B41J2/2114

  Ejecting specialized liquids, e.g. transparent or processing liquids (B41J2/211 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B41J11/002

  Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating · CPC title

• B41J2/21 Primary

  for multi-colour printing · CPC title

• B41M7/0081

  using electromagnetic radiation or waves, e.g. ultraviolet radiation, electron beams · CPC title