Patent ID: 6976747

Claim:
An ink-jet printing apparatus which prints on a printing medium by performing a printing operation by scanning a printhead unit having a first nozzle array on which a plurality of nozzles for discharging a first ink are arrayed and a second nozzle array on which a plurality of nozzles for discharging a second ink are arrayed on the printing medium along a main scanning direction crossing to a direction of the first and second nozzle arrays, and a conveying operation of the printing medium along a sub-scanning direction crossing to the main scanning direction, wherein the first nozzle array and the second nozzle array are arranged side by side along the main scanning direction so as to locate the nozzles of each of the first and second nozzle arrays at the same position in a convey direction of the printing medium, and the length of the second nozzle array is an integer multiple of the length of the first nozzle array, and the apparatus comprises printing control means for printing an image by combining steps of discharging the first ink into a first area of the printing medium using only the first nozzle array, conveying the printing medium in the sub-scanning direction by a distance corresponding to the length of the first nozzle array, and discharging the second ink into second area of the printing medium using only the second nozzle array where the first and second areas of the printing medium are not substantially overlapped with each other.