Patent ID: 7399044

Claim:
An ink jet printing method of performing printing by an operation of scanning a printing head having a plurality of ink ejection openings to a printing medium and an operation of transporting the printing medium on a platen, said method comprising the steps of: performing a first printing operation for both an outside area which is located outside an edge of the printing medium in the transported direction and above a gap of the platen and a first area on the printing medium which is located inside the edge, the first printing operation for a same line of the outside area and the first area being performed by a plurality of scanning operations between which the transporting operation by a first transporting amount is intervened; performing a second printing operation for a second area on the printing medium which is farther from the edge than the first area, the second printing operation for a same line of the second area being performed by a plurality of scanning operations between which the transporting operation by a second transporting amount is intervened; and performing a third printing operation for a third area on the printing medium which is farther from the edge than the second area, the third printing operation for a same line of the third area being performed by a plurality of scanning operations between which the transporting operation by a third transporting amount is intervened, wherein the number of the ejection openings used for one scanning operation in the first printing operation is less than the number of the ejection openings used for one scanning operation in the second printing operation, and the number of the ejection openings used for one scanning operation in the second printing operation is less than the number of the ejection openings used for one scanning operation in the third printing operation, and the first transporting amount is less than the second transporting amount, and the second transporting amount is less than the third transporting amount.