Patent ID: 7312890

Claim:
A printing apparatus for supplying ink to each of a plurality of ink keys arranged in a first direction perpendicular to a second direction which is a feed direction of a printing material to perform printing on said printing material, based on an image recorded on a printing plate, said printing apparatus comprising: a storing element for storing initial control strip data; an acquiring element for acquiring layout information serving as image layout data from print image data; generating element for generating image data about a control strip from said initial control strip data stored in said storing element, said control strip being to be formed on said printing material, said control strip having a unit size equal to an ink key region size corresponding to a size that each of said plurality of ink keys has equally in said first direction, the size of said control strip in said first direction being determined to be an integral multiple of said unit size, based on said initial control strip data and said image layout data; and a combining element for combining said print image data and said image data about said control strip together.