Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Mina Takechi

Isao Fukuchi

Yuki Naruse

Kohei Terada

Akira Minami

Keisuke Nishihara

An image forming apparatus includes: a thermal head including a plurality of heating elements; and a controller configured to execute a first one-line printing process to perform printing for one line. The first one-line printing process includes: dividing selected R heating elements into M blocks consisting of a 1-st block to an M-th block such that the M blocks include at least one high current block consisting of p heating elements and at least one low current block consisting of q heating elements; and energizing the M blocks at different timings. In a case where the 1-st block is the high current block, at least one block of the M blocks excluding the M-th block is the low current block. In a case where the 1-st block is the low current block, at least one block of the M blocks excluding the M-th block is the high current block.

Image forming apparatus configured to divide heating elements to be energized into a plurality of blocks and to energize the plurality of blocks at different timings

A print data editing device is configured to perform: editing print data such that when dots constituting an input image represented by the print data are compared by units of columns before and after the editing, a coincidence is maximized when an image of each column in the input image after the editing is the same position as an image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing or is shifted by a corresponding shift amount in a sub-scanning direction relative to the image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing. An absolute value of at least one of shift amounts for columns in the input image after the editing is one dot or greater. An absolute difference value for any two neighboring columns in a main scanning direction in the input image after the editing is one dot or less.

Print data editing device editing print data such that partial image corresponding to column is shifted by shift amount in sub-scanning direction

A print data editing device includes a controller configured to performs acquiring print data, and converting the print data. The converting includes determining, as a conversion sub-dot, one or more of sub-dots included in a sub-line for each of all sub-lines constituting one line within printing areas in an image represented by the print data, and editing the print data such that the print data indicates OFF for the one or more sub-dots determined as the conversion sub-dot. Each sub-line is constituted by the sub-dots. The sub-dot is a printing unit obtained by dividing a dot into M parts in a sub-scanning direction, where M is an integer of two or greater. The sub-dot for which the print data indicates ON is a printing area. The sub-dot for which the print data indicates OFF is a non-printing area. An area outside a printing region is also the non-printing area.

Print data editing device editing print data such that number of on-dots in image represented by print data is reduced

A print data editing device performs editing print data such that when dots constituting an input image represented by the print data are compared by units of columns before and after performing the editing, a coincidence is maximized when an image of each column in the input image after the editing is the same position as an image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing or is shifted by a corresponding shift amount relative to the image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing and an editing condition is met. The editing condition includes that an absolute value of at least one shift amount is one dot or greater, an absolute difference value for any two neighboring columns is one dot or less, and at least one absolute difference value for all possible combinations of two columns is less than one dot.

Print data editing device editing print data such that partial image corresponding to column is shifted in sub-scanning direction and editing condition is met

In a print data editing device, controller is configured to perform: editing; and converting. The editing edits print data representing an input image such that when sub-dots constituting the input image are compared by units of columns before and after performing the editing, a coincidence is maximized when an image of each column in the input image after the editing is the same position as an image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing or is shifted by a corresponding shift amount in a sub-scanning direction relative to the image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing. The converting includes: determining one or more sub-dot as a conversion sub-dot; and editing the print data such that the print data indicates OFF for the one or more sub-dots determined as the conversion sub-dot.

Print data editing device editing print data such that partial image corresponding to column is shifted in sub-scanning direction and number of on-dots in image represented by print data is reduced

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Mina Takechi