Patent ID: 7177011
Filing Date: 2007-02-13
Classification: A61P,G03B,G03F

Abstract:
1. An image drawing apparatus for forming a two-dimensional pattern represented by image data on an image drawing surface by N-overlay image drawing (where N refers to a natural number), the image drawing apparatus comprising: image drawing heads each facing the image drawing surface and comprising a pixel array, the pixel arrays respectively having two-dimensionally arranged usable pixels and generating image drawing spots forming the two-dimensional pattern according to the image data, the image drawing heads being installed in such a manner that a direction of columns of the usable pixels forms a predetermined angle with a scanning direction of the image drawing heads; moving means for moving the image drawing heads relatively to the image drawing surface in the scanning direction; active pixel specification means for specifying, for each of the image drawing heads, active relay area pixels for realizing the N-overlay image drawing in an inter-head relay area in the image drawing surface among usable relay area pixels corresponding to the image drawing spots in the inter-head relay area out of the usable pixels; and setting change means for changing a setting in order to cause only the active relay area pixels to operate among the usable relay area pixels for each of the image drawing heads.