Patent ID: 6918644

Claim:
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: an ink jet recording head which includes a plurality of nozzles divided into a plurality of groups and which is adapted to elect ink from the plurality of nozzles; a carriage on which the ink jet recording head is mounted, and which is driven to reciprocate in a direction orthogonal to a transferring direction of a recording medium; a sensor which is provided in a drive range of the carriage and such that an optical axis of detection light of the sensor is inclined with respect to a moving direction of the carriage, said sensor optically detecting the ink ejected from each of the plurality of nozzles; and a controller which controls an ejection operation of the ink jet recording head, inspects an ejection state of the ink from the plurality of nozzles based on an output of the sensor, and shifts ink ejection timings of the plurality of groups with respect to each other when inspecting the ink ejection state, wherein a shifting time of the ink ejection timings of the plurality of groups is shorter than one ejection cycle in each of the plurality of groups in image recording.