Printing control device, printing control method, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9889649-B2
Application number	US-201213724915-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2012
Priority date	Jan 31, 2012
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

A printing control device comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive an instruction to perform adjustment of the number of droplets to be ejected from ejection ports of an ejection head on a unit region of a printing medium, the ejection ports corresponding to an energy generation element, the energy generation element using electrical energy to generate energy for ejecting liquid; and a decision control unit configured to decide an amount of the electrical energy to be applied to the energy generation element corresponding to the ejection ports so that each of the ejection ports ejects the droplets; wherein the decision control unit decides whether to decide an amount of the energy in response to the receiving unit's receiving the instruction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printing control device comprising:
a receiving unit configured to receive an instruction to perform a determination of a parameter used for correcting multi valued data indicating a gradation of an image formed by an ejection of ink from ejection ports of an ejection unit onto a unit region of a printing medium, the ejection ports corresponding to respective energy generation elements that use electrical energy to generate energy for ejecting liquid;
a parameter determining unit configured to determine the parameter in response to the receiving unit receiving the instruction, the parameter being determined according to a measurement result by a measurement unit configured to measure an optical density of a patch printed on the print medium by the ejection unit with the ink ejected by an amount of the electrical energy;
a decision operation control unit configured to control a decision operation that decides the amount of the electrical energy to be applied to the energy generation elements commonly for ejecting an ink droplet from the ejection ports, wherein in the decision operation, the decision operation control unit causes the ejection unit to eject ink using varied pulse waveforms, confirms that ink is ejected by certain pulse waveform and ink is not ejected by another pulse waveform corresponding to lower energy than the certain pulse waveform, and decides the amount of the electrical energy to be applied to the energy generation elements according to the confirmation, and
an acquisition unit configured to acquire information on a number of times of application of the electrical energy to the energy generation elements,
wherein in response to receiving the instruction by the receiving unit, the decision operation control unit decides whether to perform or not to perform the decision operation according to the acquired information, in a case where the acquired information indicates a number of times larger than a threshold number of times, the decision operation control unit performs the decision operation to decide the amount of the electrical energy and updates the amount of the electrical energy to be applied to the energy generation elements, the parameter determining unit causes the ejection unit to print the patch on the print medium using the updated amount of electrical energy, and in a case where the acquired information indicates the number of times not larger than the threshold number of times, the decision operation control unit does not perform the decision operation and the parameter determining unit causes the ejection unit to print the patch on the print medium using the amount of the electrical energy without updating the amount of the electrical energy.

2. A printing control device according to claim 1 , wherein an amount of the electrical energy is decided by deciding a pulse width of an electrical signal to be applied to the energy generation element.

3. A printing control device according to claim 1 , wherein an amount of the electrical energy is decided by deciding a voltage to be applied to the energy generation element.

4. A printing control device according to claim 1 , wherein the decision operation decides an amount of the electrical energy on the basis of a detection by a sensor in the decision operation, and
an ejection port ejects an ink droplet while the sensor detects that a predetermined amount of electrical energy is applied to the energy generation element and the sensor senses the ejected droplet.

5. A printing control device according to claim 1 , further comprising an acquisition unit configured to acquire information on an elapsed time after an amount of the electrical energy was decided last time, wherein the decision control unit decides whether to decide an amount of the energy on the basis of the information on the time in response to the receiving unit's receiving the instruction.

6. A printing control device according to claim 1 , wherein the decision operation control unit is configured to control the decision operation on the basis of a lower limit of electrical energy at which all of the energy generation elements can eject droplets from the ejection ports.

7. A printing control device according to claim 1 , further comprising the ejection head configured to eject ink from ejection ports.

8. A printing control device according to claim 4 , further comprising the ejection head configured to eject ink from ejection ports.

9. A printing control device according to claim 1 , further comprising the measurement unit configured to measure the patch on the printing medium and the ejection head configured to eject ink from ejection ports.

10. A printing control device according to claim 1 , wherein the receiving unit receives the instruction based on an input by a user.

11. A printing control device according to claim 1 , further comprising an acquisition unit configured to acquire information on a number of times of application of the electrical energy to the energy generation elements, wherein
the decision operation control unit determines whether to continue performing the decision operation on the basis of information on the number of times acquired by the acquisition unit.

12. A printing control device according to claim 11 , wherein an amount of the electrical energy is decided on the basis of a detection by a detection unit in the decision operation, and
an ejection port ejects an ink droplet when the detection operation control unit detects that a predetermined amount of electrical energy is applied to the energy generation element.

13. A printing control device according to claim 11 , further comprising the ejection head configured to eject ink from ejection ports.

14. A printing control device according to claim 1 , wherein the decision operation control unit decides whether to perform or not to perform the decision operation according to the acquired information and wherein the threshold number of times depends on a color of ink.

15. A printing control device according to claim 1 , wherein the decision operation control unit decides whether to perform or not to perform the decision operation according to the acquired information, a first threshold number of times and a second threshold number of times lower than the first threshold number of times for the ejection units corresponding to different color respectively, and wherein a number of times indicated by the acquired information on the ejection unit corresponding to a first color is more than the first threshold number of times corresponding to the first color, a number of times indicated by the acquired information on the ejection unit corresponding to a second color is not more than the first threshold number of times corresponding to the second color, and a number of times indicated by the acquired information on the ejection unit corresponding to the second color is more than the second threshold number of times corresponding to the second color. the decision operation control unit decides to perform the decision operation for the ejection unit corresponding to the first color and the ejection unit corresponding to the second color.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Baba Naoko
• Nagai Hajime

Classifications

• B41J2/2128 Primary

  by means of energy modulation (control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits or control circuits B41J2/04501) · CPC title

• B41J2/07 Primary

  characterised by jet control (B41J2/205 takes precedence) · CPC title