Patent ID: 6402294
Filing Date: 2002-06-11
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
A printer comprising:a printing medium transport section for transporting a printing medium; a print head having a plurality of printing element arrays disposed thereto with a specific offset distance therebetween, each printing element array having a plurality of printing elements; a head transport unit for moving the print head orthogonally to the direction in which the paper transport section transports the printing medium; a plurality of image data storage units disposed in correlation to the plural printing element arrays for storing with correlation to a dot column position in the print head scanning direction drive data indicative of whether a printing element is driven or non-driven; a logic device for performing a logic operation on drive data stored in plural image data storage units correlated to the print head movement position, and calculating logic operation results for each print head movement position, said logic operation results indicative of whether at least one drive data for the print head movement position contains print-on data for driving one of the printing elements; a print head movement range calculator for obtaining print head movement range information defining a print head movement range required to print the drive data stored in an image data storage unit based on the logic operation results from the logic device; and a movement controller for driving the head transport unit to move the print head in the print head movement range identified from the print head movement range information calculated by the print head movement range calculator.