Patent ID: 8356882

Claim:
A printing apparatus that performs a plurality of main scanning passes in which dots are printed on a dot printing medium by outputting colorants from a plurality of nozzles of a colorant output head while moving the colorant output head in a main scanning direction, the colorant output head having the plurality of nozzles in a sub-scanning direction, and moves a relative position of the colorant output head and the dot printing medium at discrete time intervals in the sub-scanning direction, each discrete time interval corresponding to one of the main scanning passes, wherein the plurality of the main scanning passes includes a first main scanning pass in which dots are printed by a first one of the nozzles to form a first main scanning line, and a second main scanning pass in which dots are printed by a second one of the nozzles to form a second main scanning line immediately subsequent to the first main scanning line, the first and second main scanning passes being designated by a first and a second main scanning pass number, respectively, each main scanning pass number indicating an order of the respective main scanning pass relative to the other main scanning passes; the printing apparatus comprising: an omitting processor that performs an omitting process in which dots are not printed at one or more of the main scanning passes; wherein the omitting processor performs the omitting process by: selecting a combination of the first and second main scanning passes such that a difference between the first main scanning pass number and the second main scanning pass number is lower than for other possible combinations of the first and second main scanning passes; utilizing the selected combination of the first and second main scanning passes to print the dots; and omitting at least one other possible first or second main scanning pass, wherein the other possible main scanning pass does not constitute part of the selected combination.