Patent ID: 6517178
Filing Date: 2003-02-11
Classification: B05C,B41J,B41M

Abstract:
An image forming method for forming an image on an image receiving medium with an ink liquid, said ink liquid including a plurality of inks, at least one of the plurality of the inks being an image forming ink for substantially forming an image after drying out, a mixture proportion of the plurality of said inks being changed with respect to a pixel based on an image signal; said method comprising:supplying the plurality of the inks to an ink ejection port through a plurality of respective ink channels so that a not less than predetermined minimum amount of said image forming ink is always supplied; mixing the plurality of said inks at an upstream portion of the ink ejection port to produce said ink liquid; correcting a density of the pixel in accordance with said minimum amount of the image forming ink so that said mixture proportion of the plurality of the inks is corrected; controlling an ink flow rate of the respective inks in the respective ink channels based on the corrected mixture proportion in such a manner that a volume flow rate per unit time of said image forming ink does not become zero; and transporting said ink liquid from the ink ejection port to the image receiving medium, said image receiving medium being moved relatively to the ink ejection port, to form the image thereon.