Patent ID: 11945240
Assignee: EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A method of printing on an inkjet printer including a linehead with a plurality of jetting modules in a staggered, partially overlapping configuration, each of the plurality of jetting modules including a plurality of nozzles, wherein some of the nozzles of adjacent jetting modules overlap each other in a stitch area, the method comprising:
receiving image data including an array of image pixels to be printed using the inkjet printer;
for image pixels that fall within a particular stitch area where the nozzles of a left jetting module and a right jetting module overlap:
analyzing the image data within the particular stitch area to designate white pixels and non-white pixels;
for rows of image pixels where the particular stitch area includes white pixels:
defining a hard stitch boundary within the stitch area;
storing printing data indicating that image pixels within the particular stitch area to the left of the hard stitch boundary are to be printed using the left jetting module; and
storing printing data indicating that image pixels within the particular stitch area to the right of the hard stitch boundary are to be printed using the right jetting module; and

for image regions of the image data where the rows of image pixels within the stitch area include only non-white pixels:
defining a soft-stitching path through the image region; and
storing printing data indicating that image pixels within the image region are to be printed using a fading function that gradually transitions from printing image pixels with the left jetting module to printing image pixels with the right jetting module in a transition zone around the soft-stitching path.