Patent ID: 7648225

Claim:
A printing method comprising: printing an image to be printed on a medium by repeating alternately a dot forming process for forming dots on the medium by ejecting ink from each nozzle of a plurality of nozzles, and a carrying process for carrying the medium in a carrying direction, and forming a plurality of rows of dots, lined up in the carrying direction, that are configured by a plurality of dots lined up in a movement direction; counting a number of dots to be formed in a certain region of the medium; selecting a printing mode according to the number of the dots, from among a plurality of the printing modes each with a different ratio of the number of dot rows formed using a different number of nozzles to the number of dot rows formed using a certain number of nozzles, the different number of nozzles being larger than the certain number of nozzles; and printing on the certain region to be printed based on the selected printing mode, wherein: the printing modes comprise a first printing mode and a second printing mode, the first printing mode has a first ratio as the different ratio of the number of dot rows, the second printing mode has a second ratio as the different ratio of the number of dot rows, the second ratio being larger than the first ratio, if the number of the dots to be formed in the certain region is larger than a threshold, the first printing mode is selected, and if the number of the dots to be formed in the certain region is smaller than the threshold, the second printing mode is selected.