Patent ID: 8523314

Claim:
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a recording head comprising a discharge port face having an ink discharge port array that is sandwiched in a predetermined direction by a first reaction liquid discharge port array and a second reaction liquid discharge port array, wherein each discharge port array includes a plurality of discharge ports, wherein the ink discharge port array is configured to discharge coloring material-containing ink as ink and each reaction liquid discharge port array is configured to discharge reaction liquid configured to react with the ink; a scanning unit configured to cause the recording head to execute reciprocating scanning motion to perform a recording operation in a forward direction and a recording operation in a backward direction of the predetermined direction across a recording area located within a scanning area; and a preliminary discharge control unit configured to control the recording head to execute a preliminary discharge of the ink or the reaction liquid after ending a recording operation in the recording area and before starting a recording operation in the recording area, wherein, the preliminary discharge control unit causes the ink jet recording apparatus to perform a first preliminary discharge operation of performing, after the recording head executes the recording operation in the forward direction and while the recording head moves in the forward direction, a preliminary discharge from the reaction liquid discharge port array located downstream, in the forward direction, of the other reaction liquid discharge port array while not performing a preliminary discharge from the other discharge port arrays, and to perform a second preliminary discharge operation of performing, before the recording head executes the next recording operation in the backward direction and after the recording head moves in the forward direction, a preliminary discharge from the ink discharge port array while not performing a preliminary discharge from the first reaction liquid discharge port array and the second reaction liquid discharge port array.