Patent ID: 8702224

Claim:
An inkjet printer that uses a UV curable ink, the inkjet printer at least comprising: a first print head that discharges droplets of a plurality of UV curable colored inks directly on a surface of a recording medium and directly prints images and/or characters formed of an array of dots of the ink droplets; a first UV-light irradiating unit that irradiates on a colored-ink layer formed of the dots of the colored ink a UV light which partially cures the colored-ink layer; a second print head that discharges droplets of a UV curable transparent or semitransparent overprint ink on the colored-ink layer, and forms an overprint layer that covers the colored-ink layer; a second UV-light irradiating unit that irradiates on the overprint layer a UV light which partially cures the overprint layer, after allowing a predetermined time for flattening a surface of the overprint layer elapse after the overprint layer is formed; and a third UV-light irradiating unit that irradiates on the colored-ink layer and the overprint layer a UV light which completely cures the colored-ink layer and the overprint layer after the second UV-light irradiating unit irradiated UV light on the overprint layer.