Patent ID: 7552990
Filing Date: 2009-06-30
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. An apparatus to count dots of an image forming device which includes a nozzle portion having a size corresponding to a width of a printing medium and having a head chip, the apparatus comprising: a dot counting unit to group head nozzles of the head chip to form a plurality of groups of nozzles based on a position of the head nozzles on the head chip, and to count a discharged dot count per line for each group of the plurality of groups of nozzles; a control unit to determine whether a group of nozzles of the plurality of groups of nozzles has been used to print using the corresponding discharged dot count per line; a counter to count a number of times that the group of nozzles is used to print based on the determination result; and a memory to store the counted number of times, wherein when image data is created by the group of nozzles, the control unit controls the counter to count the number of times that the group of nozzles is used to print for each line of the image data, and a sum of the counted numbers of times is stored in the memory.