Abstract:
A method for driving an ink jet print head of a printing apparatus is disclosed. The ink jet print head includes a plurality of ink cells for containing ink, Each ink cell has a nozzle and a heating element. The method includes calculating an index of each nozzle which will jet ink in an array, corresponding indices of all nozzles which will jet ink in the array to heat-accumulation weightings according to a heat-accumulation weighting table, using the calculation module to calculate a total weight of the array using the heat-accumulation weightings of all the nozzles which will jet ink in the array, and using a driving module to provide energy to heating elements corresponding to the nozzles which will jet ink according to the total weight of the array.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a method for driving an ink jet print head of a printing apparatus, and more particularly, to a method for driving an ink jet print head of a printing apparatus to make temperature compensation and provide uniform ink spots. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Please refer to FIG.  1 . FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art ink jet print head  70 . The ink jet print head comprises an ink reservoir  72 , a plurality of tubes  74  and a plurality of ink-ejecting chambers  76 . The plurality of tubes  74  connects the ink reservoir  72  to the plurality of ink-ejecting chambers  76 . Ink inside the ink reservoir  72  can flow through the tubes  74  to the ink-ejecting chambers  76 . Inside each ink-ejecting chamber  76  is a heating resistor  78  that heats up the ink, increasing the ink&#39;s thermal energy. When the thermal energy of the ink in the ink-ejecting chamber  76  is above a predetermined threshold, the ink generates bubbles  80  to eject ink spots from an orifice  82  for printing. When the orifice  82  receives many instructions successively to eject ink spots, the heating resistor  78  of the orifice  82  continually heats up, and ink inside the ink-ejecting chamber  76  has a higher temperature and a lower viscosity. If, however, another orifice  82  receives fewer instructions to eject ink spots, ink inside the ink-ejecting chamber  76  has a lower temperature and a higher viscosity. If the same amount of energy is used to drive the heating resistors  78  of these two orifices  82 , non-uniform ink spots are ejected and the printing quality is lowered. So, the energy provided by the heating resistor  78  in the ink jet print head  70  not only makes the thermal energy of ink in the ink-ejecting chamber  76  higher than the predetermined threshold, but can also be adjusted to make the sizes of ejected ink spots uniform and optimize printing quality. 
     Please refer to FIG.  2 . FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a prior art driving circuit of an ink jet print head. For example, a driving circuit  10  can receive an input of eight printing data and produce eight controlling signals (D 1 , D 2 , D 3 , D 4 , D 5 , D 6 , D 7 , D 8 ) to output to an ink jet print head  40 . The ink jet print head  40  has a heating circuit  42  and eight ink-ejecting chambers (R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , R 5 , R 6 , R 7 , R 8 ). The driving circuit  10  has a shift register  22 , a latching circuit  24  and a driving module  26 . The shift register  22  receives binary printing data  30  transmitted serially from the printing apparatus. Then, the latching circuit  24  latches the printing data  30  and stores the printing data  30  in the latching circuit  24  according to a latch signal  34 . The driving module  26  consists of a plurality of AND gates  28  and causes the heating circuit  42  in the ink jet print head  40  to heat up each predetermined ink-ejecting chamber according to a driving signal  36 . The heating circuit  42  consists of a plurality of heating resistors  78  and transistor switches  44 . Each transistor switch  44  is linked from its corresponding control signal (D 1 , D 2 , D 3 , D 4 , D 5 , D 6 , D 7 , D 8 ) to the AND gate it controls. When a specific control signal is turned on, the corresponding transistor switch  44  turns on, current flows through the corresponding heating resistor  78 , the corresponding ink-ejecting chamber is heated up, and ink inside the ink-ejecting chamber is ejected as ink spots to print. 
     Please refer to FIG.  3 . FIG. 3 is a timing diagram for a first driving pattern of a prior art ink jet print head. The thermal energy of ink inside the ink-ejecting chamber  76  is influenced by energy provided by the heating resistor  78  and other factors, such as the number of ink-ejecting chambers to be driven in a printing process. When there are more ink-ejecting chambers to be driven in a printing process, the heating resistor  78  provides less energy to these ink-ejecting chambers. Between T 0  and T 1 , eight printing data  30  are input to the shift register  22  in order to control a pulse signal  32 . When the latching signal  34  produces a pulse, binary bits of eight printing data  30  are respectively latched in the latching circuit  24 . Between T 1  and T 2 , a pulse  37  is produced in the driving signal  36 . The AND gate  28  of the driving module  26  then decides whether or not to output the pulse of the corresponding driving signal  36 , depending on whether the latched printing data  30  in latching circuit  24  is a “1” or a “0.” For example, between T 0  and T 1 , the printing data  30  are (1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0). When the pulse  37  of the driving signal  36  is produced between T 1  and T 2 , the corresponding transistor switch is on and a current flows through the corresponding heating resistors to heat up the corresponding ink-ejecting chambers (R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 ) to eject ink spots. Other transistors that are off do not conduct, so the corresponding heating resistors have no current and the corresponding ink-ejecting chambers (R 5 , R 6 , R 7 , R 8 ) are not heated. As a result, no ink spots are elected from those chambers. 
     Between T 1  and T 2 , printing data is renewed to (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0). So, between T 2  and T 3 , a pulse  38  of the driving signal  36  is produced and corresponding ink-ejecting chambers (R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , R 5 ) are heated to eject ink spots. Other ink-ejecting chambers (R 6 , R 7 , R 8 ) are not heated, so they do not eject ink spots. The duration of pulses  37  and  38  is the same, but their voltages are different. The voltage of pulse  38  is lower than that of pulse  37  because five ink-ejecting chambers are driven with less energy provided by heating resistor  78  in the second printing process compared to four ink-ejecting chambers driven with more energy in the first printing process. For the same reason, six ink-ejecting chambers are driven with even less energy in the third printing process, so the voltage of pulse  39  is lower than the voltages of both pulses  37  and  38 . 
     Please refer to FIG.  4 . FIG. 4 is a timing diagram of a second driving pattern of a prior art ink jet print head. FIG. 3 showed a case where the printing data  30  is concentrated (1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0). FIG. 4 is different in that the printing data  30  is dispersed (0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0), (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1). Because the prior art only considers the number of ink-ejecting chambers to be driven, the duration and voltages of pulses  47 ,  48 ,  49  of the driving signal  36 , and the energy provided to heating resistor  78 , are the same. In fact, the thermal energy of ink inside the ink-ejecting chamber  78  is influenced by other factors, one being active ink-ejecting chambers in proximity to reserved ink-ejecting chambers. As shown in FIG. 4, the distribution of the reserved ink-ejecting chambers in the first printing process is concentrated, so the thermal energy of ink inside these ink-ejecting chambers is actually higher. However, the distribution of the reserved ink-ejecting chambers in the third printing process is very dispersed, so the thermal energy of the ink inside these ink-ejecting chambers is actually lower. This situation is not considered in the prior art as shown in FIG.  4 . Ejected ink spots are still not uniform in size and the printing quality is influenced. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide a method for driving an ink jet print head of a printing apparatus to make temperature compensation and provide uniform ink spots. 
     According to the claimed invention, a method for driving an ink jet print head of a printing apparatus is provided. The ink jet print head includes a plurality of ink cells for containing ink. Each ink cell has a nozzle and a heating element. The method includes calculating an index of each nozzle which will jet ink in an array, corresponding indices of all nozzles which will jet ink in the array to heat-accumulation weightings according to a heat-accumulation weighting table, using the calculation module to calculate a total weight of the array using the heat-accumulation weightings of all the nozzles which will jet ink in the array, and using a driving module to provide energy to heating elements corresponding to the nozzles which will jet ink according to the total weight of the array. 
     It is an advantage of the claimed invention that the method makes temperature compensation for different heat accumulation weightings and makes ejected ink spots uniform in size to improve printing quality of a printer. 
     These and other objects and the advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art ink jet print head. 
     FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a driving circuit in a prior art ink jet print head. 
     FIG. 3 is a timing diagram of a first driving signal of a prior art ink let print head. 
     FIG. 4 is a timing diagram of a second driving signal of a prior art ink jet print head. 
     FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an ink jet print head according to the present invention. 
     FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic diagrams of a heat-accumulation weighting table and a heat-dilution weighting table. 
     FIG. 7 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a total weighting calculation according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 8 is a timing diagram of driving signals of an ink jet print head according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of the total weighting calculation according to the present invention used in a first matrix ink jet print head. 
     FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of the total weighting calculation according to the present invention used in a second matrix ink jet print head. 
     FIG. 11 is a flow chart of the total weighting calculation according to the present invention used in a first matrix ink jet print head. 
     FIG. 12 is a flow chart of the total weighting calculation according to the present invention used in a second matrix ink jet print head. 
     FIG. 13 is a timing diagram of driving signals in a first matrix ink jet print head. 
     FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of the total weighting calculation according to the present invention used in a second matrix ink jet print head. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Please refer to FIG.  5 . FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a control circuit  100  in an ink jet print head according to one embodiment of the present invention. The control circuit  100  includes a shift register  122 , a latching circuit  124 , a processor  140 , a memory  150  and a driving module  126 . The shift register  122  receives printing data  130  transmitted from a printing apparatus. The printing data  130  is binary digital data, which is either 0 or 1. The latching circuit  124  latches and stores the printing data  130  in the latching circuit  124  according to a latch signal  134 . The processor  140  controls all operations of the control circuit  100 , including processing data and executing programs. The memory  150  stores a heat-accumulation weighting table  170 , a heat-dilution weighting table  180  and a weighting calculation module  160 . The heat-accumulation weighting table  170  defines a heat-accumulation weighting of a jetting nozzle according to the distribution of adjacent jetting nozzles. The heat-dilution weighting table  180  defines a heat-dilution weighting of a non-jetting nozzle according to the distribution of adjacent non-jetting nozzles. The weighting calculation module  160  is a program capable of calculating the heat-accumulation weightings of all jetting nozzles and the heat-dilution weightings of all non-jetting nozzles in the print data of each printing process and obtaining a total weighting sum. The total weighting sum will be provided to the processor  140  for determining a proper driving signal  136  to the driving module  126 . The driving module  126  comprises a plurality of AND gates  128 . The AND gates  128  provide driving signals to the heating resistors of the jetting nozzles so as to generate bubbles and jet ink drops from the nozzles. 
     Please refer to FIGS. 6A and 6B. FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic diagrams of a heat-accumulation weighting table  170  and a heat-dilution weighting table  180  according to this embodiment. The heat-accumulation weighting table  170  contains three rows: a heat-accumulation index (m)  172 , a heat-accumulation weighting (W(m))  174  and a heat-accumulation weighting value  176 . The weighting calculation module  160  calculates the heat-accumulation weightings of all jetting nozzles and non-jetting nozzles to obtain a value indicating the energy accumulation condition of the jetting nozzles in this printing process. Since the energy accumulation condition is closely related to the number of consecutive jetting nozzles, each consecutive jetting nozzle is defined a heat-accumulation index m, and is assigned a corresponding heat-accumulation weighting W(m). The first jetting nozzle is defined a heat-accumulation index 1, and is assigned a heat-accumulation weighting W(1)=a; the second consecutive jetting nozzle is defined a heat-accumulation index 2, and is assigned a heat-accumulation weighting W(2)=b; the third consecutive jetting nozzle is defined a heat-accumulation index 3, and is assigned a heat-accumulation weighting W(3);=c; the fourth consecutive jetting nozzle is defined a heat-accumulation index 4, and is assigned a heat-accumulation weighting W(4)=d, . . . , etc. The value of the heat-accumulation weighting W(m) for each consecutive jetting nozzle is determined by estimation and experimental measurements. In this embodiment, W(1)=a=1, W(2)=b=2, W(3)=c=3, W(4)=d=4, W(5)=e=5, . . . etc. In a simplified example, if there are 10 nozzles arranged in a line and three adjacent nozzles of which are desired to jet ink drops, it is regarded that there are three consecutive jetting nozzles. These jetting nozzles will be defined as heat-accumulation index 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The heat-accumulation weightings  174  of the first jetting nozzle, the second consecutive jetting nozzle, and the third consecutive jetting nozzle are respectively represented as a, b, c. According to the heat-accumulation weighting table  170 , the heat-accumulation weighting sum will be  Wtotal=W (1)+ W (2)+ W (3)= a+b+c= 6. The heat-accumulation weighting sum Wtotal=6 indicates the heat accumulation condition of the print data in this printing process. 
     Similarly, the heat-dilution weighting table  180  has three rows: a heat-dilution index (k)  182 , a heat-dilution weighting (C(k))  184  and a heat-dilution weighting value  186 . The weighting calculation module  160  calculates the heat-dilution weightings of all non-jetting nozzles to obtain a value indicating the energy dilution condition of the non-jetting nozzles in this printing process. The energy dilution condition is also closely related to the number of consecutive non-jetting nozzles, so each consecutive non-jetting nozzle is defined by a heat-dilution index k, and is assigned a heat-dilution weighting C(k). The first non-jetting nozzle is defined by a heat-dilution index 1, and is assigned a heat-dilution weighting C(1)=A; the second consecutive non-jetting nozzle is defined by a neat-dilution index 2, and is assigned a heat-dilution weighting C(2)=B; the third consecutive non-jetting nozzle is defined by a heat-dilution index 3, and is assigned a heat-dilution weighting C(3)=C; the fourth consecutive non-jetting nozzle is defined by a heat-dilution index 4, and is assigned a heat-dilution weighting C(4)=D, . . . , etc. The value of the heat-dilution weighing W(m) for each consecutive non-jetting nozzle is determined by estimation and experimental measurements. In this embodiment, C(1)=A=0, C(2)=B=1, C(3)=C=1, C(4)−D−2, C(5)=E=2, . . . , etc. In a simplified example, if there are 10 nozzles arranged in a line and three adjacent nozzles of which are desired not to jet ink drops, it is regarded that there are three consecutive non-jetting nozzles. These non-jetting nozzles will be defined as heat-dilution index 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The heat-dilution weightings  184  of the first non-jetting nozzle, the second consecutive non-jetting nozzle, and the third consecutive non-jetting nozzle are respectively A, B, C. According to the heat dilution weighting table  180 , the heat-dilution weighting sum will be  Ctotal=C (1)+ C (2)+ C (3)= A+B+C= 2. The heat-dilution weighting sum Ctotal=2 indicates a heat dilution condition of the print data in this printing process. 
     Please refer to FIG.  7 . FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating the calculation of the heat-accumulation sum according to this embodiment. This flow chart is suitable for estimating the heat-accumulation effect for ink jet print heat with the linear nozzle arrangement. It should be noted that more sophisticated algorithms may also be adopted considering various conditions, and applications. 
     step  702 : start; 
     step  704 : printing data index n is set to 1; heat-accumulation index m is set to 1; heat-accumulation weighting sum Wtotal is set to 0; total weighting sum SUM is set to 0; 
     step  706 ; read printing data Data(n); 
     step  708 : if printing data Data(n) is 1, go to step  712 , if not, go to step  710 ; 
     step  710 : heat-accumulation index m is set to 1, go to step  716 ; 
     step  712 : add the heat accumulation weighting W(m) to the heat-accumulation weighting sum Wtotal; 
     step  714 : add 1 to the heat-accumulation index m; 
     step  716 : add 1 to the printing data index n; 
     step  718 : if there is more printing data Data(n) in the sequence, go to step  706 , if not, go to step  720 ; 
     step  720 : set total weighting sum SUM as heat-accumulation weighting sum Wtotal; 
     step  722 : end. 
     For easier understanding of this embodiment, a simplified example is given below. Assume an ink jet print head has eight nozzles arranged in a line, signals received by each nozzle are expressed by: 
     Data( 1 ), Data( 2 ), Data( 3 ), Data( 4 ), Data( 5 ), Data( 6 ), Data( 7 ), Data( 8 ). 
     If the signal received by a nozzle is 1, the nozzle is desired to jet ink. If the signal received by a nozzle is 0, the nozzle is desired not to jet ink. 
     Example 1: 
     Data( 1 )=1; 
     Data( 2 )=1; 
     Data( 3 )=1; 
     Data( 4 )=1; 
     Data( 5 )=0; 
     Data( 6 )=0; 
     Data( 7 )=0; 
     Data( 8 )=0; 
     
       
         
           SUM=a+b+c+d= 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10   
         
       
     
     according to the heat-accumulation weighting table  170  in FIG.  6 A and the flow chart in FIG.  7 . 
     Example 2: 
     Data( 1 )=0; 
     Data( 2 )=1; 
     Data( 3 )=1; 
     Data( 4 )=0; 
     Data( 5 )=0; 
     Data( 6 )=1; 
     Data( 7 )=1; 
     Data( 8 )=0; 
     
       
         
           SUM=a+b+a+b= 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 6   
         
       
     
     according to the heat-accumulation weighting table  170  in FIG.  6 A and the flow chart in FIG.  7 . 
     Example 3: 
     Data( 1 )=1; 
     Data( 2 )=0; 
     Data( 3 )=0; 
     Data( 4 )=1; 
     Data( 5 )=0; 
     Data( 6 )=1; 
     Data( 7 )=0; 
     Data( 8 )=1; 
     
       
         
           SUM=a+a+a+a= 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4   
         
       
     
     according to the heat-accumulation weighting table  170  in FIG.  6 A and the flow chart in FIG.  7 . 
     In these three examples, four nozzles are driven to jet ink in the printing process, but with different nozzle distributions. The first printing data  30  is (1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0). The second printing data  30  is dispersed (0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0). The third printing data  30  is even more dispersed (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1). The weighting calculation module  160  of this embodiment calculates the total weighting SUM to have three different values (10, 6, and 4). Therefore, the processor  140  may use three different driving signals  136  to drive the driving module  126 . 
     FIG. 8 is a timing diagram of three different driving signals in this embodiment. When there are four nozzles to be driven in each printing process, the larger the total weighting SUM is, the more obvious the heat accumulation effect is. Therefore, energy of the corresponding driving signal is smaller (see pulses  137  and  147 ). In contrast, if the total weighting SUM is smaller, the heat accumulation effect will be less obvious, and the energy of the corresponding driving signal should be larger (see pulses  139  and  149 ). 
     FIG. 8 illustrates two different kinds of driving signals, a first driving signal and a second driving signal. Both the first driving signal and the second driving signal are suitable in this embodiment. The only difference is the form in which they generate energy to the nozzles. Pulses  137 ,  138  and  139  of the first driving signal  136  have the same voltage but different duration so as to generate different energy levels. Pulses  147 ,  148  and  149  of the second driving signal  146  have the same duration but different voltage so as to generate different energy levels. There may be various forms of driving signals so long as they are capable of generating different energy levels to the jetting nozzles. 
     In addition, the SUM may also be divided into several sections for determining proper driving signals. For example, when SUM is smaller than or equal to 5 (SUM&lt;=5), a first driving signal is used; when SUM is larger than 5, and smaller than or equal to 9 (5&lt;SUM&lt;=9), a second driving signal is used; when SUM is larger than 9 (9&lt;SUM), a third driving signal is used. The first, second or third driving signal may have different durations or voltages to provide different energy levels to the jetting nozzles. 
     In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to an ink jet print head where the nozzles are arranged in a linear form. Meanwhile, the present invention may also be applied to other ink jet print heads where the nozzles are arranged in a matrix form. FIG.  9  and FIG. 10 are schematic diagrams illustrating the calculation of a total weighting sum SUM in a second embodiment where the nozzles are arranged in a matrix form on the print head. To simplify the illustration, only heat-accumulation is considered when calculating the total weighting sum SUM in FIG.  9  and FIG.  10 . When nozzles are arranged in a matrix, these nozzles can be regarded as composed of a plurality of columns (C 1 , C 2 , C 3 ) and a plurality of rows (R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , R 5 ). Nozzles in each column or row can be considered as linearly arranged. Therefore, the weighting calculation procedure in FIG. 7 can be applied. Weighting calculation results of each column and each row are added to generate a total weighting sum SUM as indicated in the calculation procedures  210  and  220  in FIG.  9  and FIG.  10 . In FIG.  9  and FIG. 10, the numbers of jetting nozzles in both embodiments are six. When the nozzle distribution is dispersed as illustrated in FIG. 9, a smaller total weighting sum SUM (which equals 13) is obtained. When the nozzle distribution is more concentrated as illustrated in FIG. 10, a larger total weighting sum SUM (which equals 21) is calculated. 
     FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating the calculation of the total weighting sum SUM in an ink jet print head where the nozzles are arranged in a matrix form. The calculation steps include: 
     step  1102 : start; 
     step  1104 : calculating a heat-accumulation weighting sum of each column; 
     step  1106 : calculating a heat-accumulation weighting sum of each row; 
     step  1108 : add up the heat-accumulation weighting sums of each column and each row to generate a total weighting sum; 
     step  1110 : end. 
     Please refer to FIG.  12 . FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating the total weighting sum calculation of another embodiment according to the present invention. In addition to the heat-accumulation weighting sum, this embodiment considers the heat-dilution weighting sum as well. The stops include: 
     step  1202 : start; 
     step  1204 : printing data index n set to 1; heat-accumulation index m set to 1; heat-dilution index k set to 1; heat-accumulation weighting sum Wtotal set to 0; heat-dilution weighting sum Ctotal set to 0; total weighting sum SUM set to 0; 
     step  1206 : read printing data DATA(n); 
     step  1208 : if DATA (n) is 1, go to step  1214 ; if not, go to step  1210 ; 
     step  1210 : according to the heat-dilution weighting table  130  (FIG.  6 B), add heat-dilution weighting C(k) to heat-dilution weighting sum Ctotal; 
     step  1212 : add 1 to heat-dilution index k, set heat-accumulation index m to 1, go to step  1218 ; 
     step  1214 : add heat-accumulation weighting W(m) to heat-accumulation weighting sum Wtotal; 
     step  1216 : add 1 to heat accumulation index m, set heat-dilution index k to 1; 
     step  1218 : add 1 to printing data index n; 
     step  1220 : if there is other printing data, go to step  1206 ; if not, go to step  1222 ; 
     step  1222 : subtract heat-dilution weighting Ctotal from heat-accumulation weighting Wtotal and save the difference as total weighting sum SUM; 
     step  1224 : end. 
     A simplified example is illustrated below. Assume an ink jet print head has eight nozzles arranged in a line, each signal received by the nozzle being expressed as: 
     Data( 1 ), Data( 2 ), Data( 3 ), Data( 4 ), Data( 5 ), Data( 6 ), Data( 7 ) and Data( 8 ). 
     If the signal received by a nozzle is 1, the nozzle is desired to jet ink. If the signal received by a nozzle is 0, the nozzle is desired not to jet ink. 
     Example one: 
     Data( 1 )=1, 
     Data( 2 )=1, 
     Data( 3 )=1, 
     Data( 4 )=1, 
     Data( 5 )=0, 
     Data( 6 )=0, 
     Data( 7 )=0, 
     Data( 8 )=0 
     From the heat-accumulation weighting table  170  in FIG.  6 A and the flow chart in FIG. 12,              SUM   =     Wtotal   -   Ctotal                 =       (     a   +   b   +   c   +   d     )     -     (     A   +   B   +   C   +   D     )                   =       (     1   +   2   +   3   +   4     )     -     (     0   +   1   +   1   +   2     )                   =   6                                
     Example two: 
     Data( 1 )=0, 
     Data( 2 )=1, 
     Data( 3 )=1, 
     Data( 4 )=0, 
     Data( 5 )=0, 
     Data( 6 )=1, 
     Data( 7 )=1, 
     Data( 8 )=0, 
     From the heat-accumulation weighting table  170  in FIG.  6 A and the flow chart in FIG. 12,              SUM   =     Wtotal   -   Ctotal                 =       (     a   +   b   +   c   +   d     )     -     (     A   +   B   +   C   +   D     )                   =       (     1   +   2   +   1   +   2     )     -     (     0   +   0   +   1   +   0     )                   =   5                                
     Example three: 
     Data( 1 )=1, 
     Data( 2 )=0, 
     Data( 3 )=0, 
     Data( 4 )=1, 
     Data( 5 )=0, 
     Data( 6 )=1, 
     Data( 7 )=0, 
     Data( 8 )=1, 
     From the heat-accumulation weighting table  170  in FIG.  6 A and the flow chart in FIG. 12,              SUM   =     Wtotal   -   Ctotal                 =       (     a   +   b   +   c   +   d     )     -     (     A   +   B   +   C   +   D     )                   =       (     1   +   1   +   1   +   1     )     -     (     0   +   1   +   0   +   0     )                   =   3                                
     This embodiment considers both the heat-accumulation effect and the heat-dilution effect, thus the total weighting sum SUM better represents the energy accumulation condition of the nozzles on the print head in this printing process. A better determination of proper driving signals can be achieved. 
     FIG. 13 is a timing diagram illustrating the driving signal of this embodiment according to the present invention. Printing data  130  in FIG. 13 is the same as that in FIG.  8 . However, in this embodiment the weighting calculation module  160  considers both the heat-dilution effect and the heat-accumulation effect of the nozzles. After the heat-accumulation weighting sum Wtotal and the heat-dilution weighting sum Ctotal are calculated, the total weighting sum SUM are obtained (6, 5, and 3). Driving signals in these three conditions are different, represented by pulses  1137 ,  1138  and  1139 , respectively. The total weighting sum of the first printing data  130  (1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0) is larger, so the energy level of the pulse  1137  is smaller. The total weighting sum of the third printing data  130  (1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0) is smaller, so the energy level of the pulse  1139  is larger. 
     FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram illustrating the calculation of the total weighting sum of another embodiment where the ink jet print head has nozzles arranged in a matrix form. As shown, the heat-accumulation weighting sum and the heat-dilution weighting sum of the nozzles are considered when calculating total weighting sum. The nozzles of the ink jet print head can be divided into a plurality of columns (C 1 , C 2 , C 3 ) and a plurality of rows (R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , R 5 ). Each column and row can be respectively considered as nozzles arranged in a linear way, and the total weighting sum of each column and row are calculated as indicated in FIG.  12 . The total weighting sums of all columns and rows are added up to generate a total weighting sum SUM. 
     Since SUM is defined as Wtotal subtracts Ctotal ( SUM=Wtotal−Ctotal ), the value of SUM may be negative. This will not cause any problem if SUM is divided into several ranges for determining a proper driving signal. For example, if SUM &lt;=0, a first driving signal is used; if 0&lt;SUM&lt;=10, a second driving signal is used; if 10&lt;SUM&lt;=20, a third driving signal is used; if 20&lt;SUM, a fourth driving signal is used. The first, the second, the third, and the fourth driving signals may have different duration or voltage to provide different energy levels to the heating devices so as to jet ink drops out of the nozzles on the print head. 
     In FIG. 1 the heating devices (the heating resistor  78 ) are installed inside the ink-ejecting chambers. It is noted that the heating devices may also be installed outside the ink-ejecting chambers to heat up ink inside the ink-ejecting chambers so as to jet ink drops out of the nozzles. 
     The prior art considers only the number of jetting nozzles, but does not consider the distribution of the jetting nozzles to determine proper driving signals. The present invention considers the distribution of the jetting nozzles by calculating the heat-accumulation effect of jetting nozzles and the heat-dilution effect of non-jetting nozzles, so a better determination of proper driving signals can be achieved. The present invention makes the thermal distribution of different ink-ejecting chambers in the ink jet print head more uniform, makes the sizes of ejected ink drops uniform, and leads to better printing quality. 
     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the present invention may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of appended claims.