Patent ID: 8038244

Claim:
A printing apparatus that prints an image by ejecting ink from nozzles onto a medium that is transported in a transporting direction, the printing apparatus comprising: a) a first print head, mounted on a carriage moving in a carriage movement direction during printing, provided with a nozzle row including nozzles which are arranged in a row along the transporting direction; b) a second print head mounted on the carriage and provided with a nozzle row, a section of the nozzle row of the second print head overlapping a section of the nozzle row of the first print head to form a first aligned nozzle section; c) a third print head mounted on the carriage and provided with a nozzle row, a section of the nozzle row of the third print head overlapping a section of the nozzle row of the second print head to form a second aligned nozzle section, the nozzle row of the third print head not overlapping the nozzle row of the first print head in the transporting direction, a number of nozzles in the second aligned section being different from a number of nozzles in the first aligned section; d) a memory that stores information about the number of nozzles in each of the first and second aligned nozzle sections; and e) a controller that controls a timing at which the ink is ejected from the first, second and third print heads based on the information about the number of nozzles in the each aligned nozzle section, wherein the timing for the nozzles of the second print head that belongs to the first aligned nozzle section is different from the timing for the nozzles of the second print head that belongs to the second aligned nozzle section.