Patent ID: 7407264

Claim:
A liquid discharging method for forming dot arrays or dots on a recording medium by discharging droplets from a plurality of liquid discharging portions while controlling the discharging direction and angle, and changing the dot diameter based on the number of the discharged droplets, the liquid discharging portions comprising a liquid chamber containing liquid to be discharged and a plurality of heating elements arranged in a predetermined direction inside the liquid chamber to generate a bubble in the liquid in the liquid chamber by the application of energy so that the liquid is discharged from a liquid discharging outlet, and the method comprising the steps of: obtaining information about a defective liquid discharging portion having discharging failure by checking the discharging states of the droplets discharged from the liquid discharging portions; prohibiting the defective liquid discharging portion from discharging and generating new droplet discharging signals for reducing the influence of the discharging failure of the defective liquid discharging portion; and discharging droplets from a liquid discharging portion different from the defective liquid discharging portion while controlling the discharging direction and angle by forming a bubble generation time difference by applying a difference in energy between at least one of the heating elements and at least another one of the heating elements so as to control the discharging direction and angle of the liquid discharged from the liquid discharging outlet based on the value of the bubble generation time difference, according to the new droplet discharging signals; wherein the new droplet discharging signals are generated only when the diameter of the dots formed on the recording medium by the droplets discharged from the liquid discharging portion different from the defective liquid discharging portion takes a minimum value or is close to the minimum value.