Patent ID: 7708365

Claim:
A liquid-discharge recording head comprising: nozzles through which liquid is discharged; and a liquid-supply opening through which the liquid is supplied to the nozzles, wherein the nozzles include a first nozzle group, a second nozzle group, and a third nozzle group, the diameter of the nozzles of the first nozzle group is larger than the diameters of the nozzles of the second and third nozzle groups and the diameter of the nozzles of the third nozzle group is smaller than the diameters of the nozzles of the first and second nozzle groups, wherein the nozzles of the first nozzle group are disposed linearly on one side of the liquid-supply opening and the nozzles of the second and third nozzle groups are disposed in a staggering arrangement on the other side of the liquid-supply opening, wherein, in a first print mode, printing for forming a pixel by a single relative movement of a liquid recording head and a recording medium is performed by using only the first nozzle group, in a second print mode, printing for forming a complete image by a single relative movement of the liquid recording head and the recording medium is performed by using only the second and third nozzle groups and in a third print mode, printing for forming a pixel by a plurality of relative movements of the liquid recording head and the recording medium is performed by using only the third nozzle group, and wherein the print frequency in the third print mode is higher than the print frequency in the first and second print modes, and the print frequency in the second print mode is higher than the print frequency in the first print mode.