Patent ID: 6890047

Claim:
A printing apparatus for printing an image on a printing medium while relatively moving at least one of a printing head provided with an array of a plurality of printing elements and the printing medium, said apparatus comprising: a carriage mounting said printing head, and movable relative to the printing medium in a scanning direction crossing said array of said plurality of printing elements; detection means mounted on said carriage for detecting printing positions of an array of printed pixels corresponding to said array of said plurality of printing elements, said detecting means detecting printed pixels printed by any of said plurality of printing elements; determining means for determining all of the printing elements from among said plurality of printing elements that have displacement amounts of printing positions of corresponding printed pixels from a printing position of a printed pixel corresponding to one end side of said array of printing elements equal to or greater than a predetermined amount; and control means for adjusting drive timing of said plurality of printing elements according to detection results of said detection means so as to make printing positions of subsequently printed pixels close to a predetermined center position, said control means adjusting the drive timing of all of said printing elements determined by said determining means, so that a deviation amount between printing positions of printed pixels corresponding to the one end side and the other end side of said array of printing elements is equal to or smaller than the predetermined amount, said control means not adjusting the drive timing of a plurality of printing elements that are positioned continuously from a printing element positioned at the one end side of said array of printing elements and that have displacement amounts of printing positions of corresponding printed pixels from the printing position of the printed pixel corresponding to the one end side of said array of printing elements less than the predetermined amount, and said control means adjusting the drive timing of any of printing elements that are positioned continuously from a printing element positioned at the other end side of said array of printing elements and that have displacement amounts of printing positions of corresponding printed pixels from the printing position of the printed pixel corresponding to the one end side of said array of printing elements equal to or greater than the predetermined amount, wherein all of said printing elements determined by said determining means exclude the one end side of said array of printing elements.