Patent ID: 7789476
Filing Date: 2010-09-07
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. A printing position alignment method for aligning printing positions by first and second printing operations, comprising: a printing step of printing a plurality of alignment patterns, each alignment pattern being composed of a first alignment pattern element printed by the first printing operation and a second alignment pattern element printed by the second printing operation, each alignment pattern indicating a different optical characteristic due to a misalignment in a relative printing position of the second alignment pattern element relative to the first alignment pattern element, and the plurality of alignment patterns being printed by shifting the relative printing position of the second alignment pattern element relative to the first alignment pattern element; a measuring step of measuring the respective optical characteristics of the plurality of alignment patterns; a determination step of determining reliability of the plurality of alignment patterns based on, among data of the plurality of optical characteristics thus measured, data indicating that a misalignment of the relative printing position of the second alignment pattern element to the first alignment pattern element is smallest and data of optical characteristics in the neighborhood of the data indicating the smallest misalignment; and an adjusting value obtaining step of, in a case where the reliability is determined to be high in the determination step, obtaining an adjusting value for aligning the printing positions based on a smaller number of pieces of data of the optical characteristics than that in the case where the reliability is determined to be low.