Patent ID: 7455379

Claim:
A printing apparatus for printing a color image by applying different amounts of different color inks onto a print medium while scanningly moving a recording head bi-directionally, the recording head including recording elements corresponding to the respective different color inks, wherein the recording elements are arranged symmetrically in a scanning direction, said printing apparatus comprising: a plurality of print buffers corresponding to the symmetrically arranged recording elements; and distributing means for distributing, to the print buffers, print data for different colors constituting a secondary color corresponding to secondary color pixel areas to be printed with the different color inks at least at one ink amount on the basis of image signals corresponding to a color image, the pixel areas being disposed in a raster scan direction, wherein said distributing means distributes the print data corresponding to substantially one-half of the pixel areas to one of said print buffers and distributes the print data corresponding to another part of the pixel areas to another one of said print buffers.