Patent ID: 6715945
Filing Date: 2004-04-06
Classification: B41F

Abstract:
A printing apparatus for applying ink to a printing medium while feeding said printing medium in a predetermined feed direction, thereby to provide a printed sheet, said printing apparatus comprising:an ink supply mechanism for individually supplying a designated amount of ink through a plurality of ink transfer mechanisms to a plurality of regions defined on said printing medium to obtain a printed sheet, each of said regions extending in said feed direction; an image reader provided in a feed path of printed sheets for capturing an image on a sample sheet selected among said printed sheets to obtain image data; a computation device for processing said image data to compute measurement data about said sample sheet for each of said regions; a controller for controlling said image reader to read image data and controlling said computation device to compute measurement data from the obtained image data while intermittently selecting said sample sheet among said printed sheets; and a storage element for storing said measurement data for each of said regions in association with printing history information, wherein said printing history information includes one of i) a print serial number substantially identifying said sample sheet among said printed sheets, and ii) a time value substantially representative of time at which said sample sheet is subjected to a printing process.