Patent ID: 9205689
Filing Date: 2015-12-08
Classification: B41J,G06K

Abstract:
1. An image printing apparatus comprising: a printing control unit configured to print an image in a unit area on a printing medium by performing a plurality of scans relatively in a scan direction by a print head for discharging ink on the unit area in accordance with print data that specifies whether the ink is to be discharged or not to each of a plurality of pixel areas corresponding to a plurality of pixels in the unit area in each of the plurality of scans; a determining unit configured to determine an attribute of the image to be printed in each of a plurality of determination areas obtained by division of the unit area; an acquiring unit configured to acquire binary data that specifies whether the ink is to be discharged or not to each of the plurality of pixel areas in the plurality of determination areas; and a generating unit configured to generate the plurality of print data to be used in printing in the plurality of scans based on a plurality of first mask patterns and a plurality of second mask patterns in which print permitting pixels and non-print permitting pixels are arranged and the binary data acquired by the acquiring unit, the plurality of first mask patterns and the plurality of second mask patterns corresponding to the plurality of scans, the print permitting pixels permitting ink to be discharged, the non-print permitting pixels not permitting ink to be discharged, wherein when each of a print permitting pixel group consisting of a plurality of adjacent print permitting pixels and a print permitting pixel that is not adjacent to the other print permitting pixels in each of the mask patterns is defined as a single unit, a mean of the numbers of the print permitting pixels in the units in one mask pattern of the plurality of second mask patterns is larger than a mean of the numbers of the print permitting pixels in the units in one mask pattern of the plurality of first mask patterns, and the generating unit is configured to generate the plurality of print data based on the plurality of first mask patterns when the determining unit determines that the attribute of the image to be printed in the determination area is a first attribute and configured to generate the plurality of print data based on the plurality of second mask patterns when the determining unit determines that the attribute of the image to be printed in the determination area is a second attribute different from the first attribute.