Patent ID: 8491078

Claim:
A printing apparatus that performs printing on a printing medium by causing relative movement between a print head and the printing medium, the apparatus comprising: a print head comprising a plurality of nozzles configured to eject ink, the plurality of nozzles comprising preceding nozzles and following nozzles, the preceding nozzles preceding the following nozzles during movement of the print head relative to the printing medium; an acquisition unit that acquires image data; and a dot forming unit that controls the print head so as to eject the ink to form dots corresponding to the image data on the printing medium, wherein: when suppression dots, which are dots formed to suppress bleeding, are formed on the printing medium, the dot forming unit controls the print head so that the preceding nozzles eject the ink onto the printing medium earlier than the following nozzles; wherein the ink comprises a first ink and a second ink, and wherein the plurality of nozzles further comprises: a first nozzle array arranged in a sub-scanning direction and configured to eject the first ink, and a second nozzle array arranged in the sub-scanning direction and configured to eject the second ink, wherein the suppression dots are formed from the second ink, wherein the second ink has a higher propensity for producing visible bleeding than the first ink, each of the first and second nozzle arrays being arranged in a main scanning direction and comprising a plurality of the preceding nozzles and a plurality of the following nozzles, the main scanning direction being generally transverse to the sub-scanning direction; wherein the second nozzle array is configured such that the preceding nozzles of the second nozzle array arrive on the printing medium prior to the following nozzles of the second array during movement of the print head relative to printing medium in the sub-scanning direction; and the dot forming unit ejects the second ink with a usage rate of the preceding nozzles of the second array higher than a usage rate of the preceding nozzles of the first nozzle array that are arranged at positions corresponding to the preceding nozzles of the second array.