Patent ID: 9346283
Filing Date: 2016-05-24
CPC Classification: B41J,H04N

Claim Text:
1. An image forming apparatus configured to form an image on a recording medium using a black color material and a plurality of chromatic color materials, the image forming apparatus comprising: a generation unit configured to generate black color material data for arranging a dot of the black color material on the recording medium and a plurality of pieces of chromatic color material data for arranging a dot of the plurality of chromatic color materials on the recording medium, based on input image data; and a formation unit configured to form an image on the recording medium using the black color material and the plurality of chromatic color materials based on the black color material data and the plurality of pieces of chromatic color material data, wherein the generation unit is configured to generate the plurality of pieces of chromatic color material data, for each color positioned at a surface of a dark portion reproduced using the black color material and two color materials among the plurality of chromatic color materials in a color gamut that can be reproduced using the black color material and the plurality of chromatic color materials, in such a way as to set the number of specific colors of the plurality of chromatic color materials having one or more dots arranged exclusively with dots of other chromatic color materials on the recording medium to be equal to or less than one color among colors corresponding to each of the plurality of chromatic color materials by arranging the dots to be partially overlapped or by overlapping the dots of the plurality of chromatic colors other than the one or more dots of the specific chromatic color which are exclusively arranged.