Patent ID: 7377619

Claim:
A printing apparatus for forming an image on a print medium by scanning a print head over the print medium in a scan direction different from the nozzle arrangement direction to apply a plurality of colorants to the print medium, the print head having a plurality of nozzle arrays arranged in the scan direction, two or more of the nozzle arrays being allocated to each of the colorants, the number of nozzle arrays allocated to one colorant differing depending on the colorant, each of the nozzle arrays having a plurality of nozzles arrayed at a predetermined pitch, comprising: mode selection means to switch between a first print mode and a second print mode to perform a higher resolution printing that the first print mode; and nozzle drive control means to control operations of the nozzles according to the mode selected by the mode selection means, wherein an interval between nozzles in nozzle arrays allocated to a colorant that is allocated with a greater number of nozzle arrays than at least one other colorant is narrower than an interval between nozzles in nozzle arrays allocated to at least one other colorant, wherein, for the colorant allocated with a greater number of nozzle arrays than at least one other colorant, the nozzle drive control means uses in the first print mode only a particular one of the two or more nozzle arrays allocated to the colorant and, in the second print mode, uses all of the two or more nozzle arrays allocated to the colorant, wherein the nozzles in a plurality of nozzle arrays allocated to one and the same colorant form dots at different printing positions in the nozzle arrangement direction, and wherein an interval between dots which are capable of being printed by a first plurality of nozzle arrays allocated to a given colorant, the first plurality of nozzle arrays having a greater number of nozzle arrays, is narrower than an interval between dots which are capable of being printed by a second plurality of nozzle arrays allocated to another colorant, the second plurality of nozzle arrays having a smaller number of nozzle arrays.