Patent ID: 7552996

Claim:
A printing apparatus having a printhead including a plurality of printhead chips, a plurality of printing elements being arranged in element arrays on each of the plurality of printhead chips, the plurality of printhead chips being arrayed in a staggered manner in a longitudinal direction of the printhead so that at least one of the printing elements in each element array of adjacent printhead chips in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction overlaps, the printing apparatus using the printhead to print an image on a printing medium by conveying the printing medium in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, the apparatus comprising: an input unit configured to input print data; a distributing unit configured to distribute the print data to be used in printing to the printing elements of each of the element arrays; and a control unit configured to control a distribution ratio of print data to the at least one of the printing elements in each element array of the adjacent printhead chips in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, wherein, of the element arrays of each of the adjacent printhead chips, the control unit controls the distribution ratio of the element array that is closer to the adjacent printhead chip in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the printhead to become greater.