Patent ID: 6386673
Filing Date: 2002-05-14
Classification: B41J,D06P

Abstract:
An image forming apparatus which forms an image on a printing medium by using a first printing head having a plurality of printing elements, comprising:scanning means for scanning the first printing head relative to the printing medium; image formation control means for causing said scanning means to scan the first printing head to form an image on the basis of image data corresponding to the plurality of printing elements respectively, said image formation control means causing said scanning means to scan the first printing head a plurality of times to a predetermined area on the printing medium to form an image, wherein said image formation control means is adapted to form an image so that image areas formed by the plurality of elements of the first printing head may be at least partially overlapped in each of the plurality of scans of the first printing head; test image forming means for causing said first printing head to form a test image, wherein the test image is formed by using said image formation control means; obtaining means for obtaining correction amounts for respective image data corresponding to the plurality of printing elements on the basis of a result of reading of an image density of the test image, the correction amounts for equalizing an image density of an image formed by said first printing head; and correcting means for correcting image data in accordance with the correction amounts obtained by said obtaining means, for the respective image data corresponding to the plurality of printing elements, wherein the correction amounts obtained by said obtaining means are common for the printing elements scanned to a given place during the plurality of scans.