Printing Apparatus Pixel Shift for Color Coverage
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Solution Overview
Problem
In color development layers with short heating times, the area of colored portions is limited, leading to low coverage and reduced color development, which affects the quality of printed images.
Innovation Solution
A printing apparatus and method that uses a print head with heat generation elements arranged in a specific configuration to control heating pulses, shifting the positions of colored pixels between lines by a distance smaller than the resolution interval, ensuring enhanced color development across the print medium.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If heating time for color development is limited to short time, then printing speed is improved, but coverage of colored portions is reduced and color development degree is lowered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dimensionality change by shifting pixel positions in the first direction (conveyance direction) between adjacent lines in the second direction. This creates overlapping colored portions across lines, effectively increasing coverage area without extending heating time. The positional shift parameter alpha controls the degree of overlap, allowing optimization of both printing speed and color development coverage.
2Productivity
If heating time for color development is limited to short time, then printing speed is improved, but degree of color development is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent compensates for reduced color development degree caused by short heating times by increasing coverage through positional shifts. By arranging pixels at shifted positions in the conveyance direction, the colored portions from adjacent lines overlap, ensuring that each pixel receives sufficient thermal energy for proper color development even with brief heating pulses.
3Ease of manufacture
If pixels are arranged at predetermined resolution without shifting, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but coverage and color development quality are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by implementing positional shifts only in specific regions where coverage enhancement is needed. The shift amount alpha can be adjusted locally for different lines or regions, allowing optimization of color development coverage while maintaining standard pixel arrangements in areas where this is not critical. This selective application maintains manufacturing simplicity while improving quality where necessary.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach increases the coverage of colored portions, thereby enhancing the degree of color development and enabling the printing of high-quality images.
Implementation Method 1
a print head including a plurality of heat generation elements that are arranged in a second direction crossing the first direction and heat the print medium
Data Source
AI summary
A print medium in which a plurality of color development layers that develop colors to obtain colored portions by being heated are formed at different positions in the thickness direction is conveyed in a first direction. A plurality of heat generation elements that heat the print medium are controlled so as to selectively cause the plurality of color development layers to develop the respective colors. Heating positions on the print medium are controlled such that, in at least one of the color development layers in the print medium, in a case where lines each including a plurality of pixels which are formed by the colored portions and arranged at a predetermined resolution in the first direction are arranged in a second direction, positions of the plurality of pixels are shifted between the lines in the first direction by a distance smaller than an interval corresponding to a resolution.