Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Reiji Hashimoto

Daigoro Kanematsu

Yoshinori Nakajima

Mitsutoshi Nagamura

Naoko Baba

Akihiro Tomida

Akihiro Kakinuma

Asako Watanabe

Multiple alignment patterns, each composed of first and second alignment pattern elements printed by forward and backward movements of a print head, respectively, are formed while the relative printing positions of the two elements are shifted. From optical characteristics data thereof, whether the data is influenced by a disturbance is determined. When the data is determined to be less influenced by the disturbance and therefore to be reliable, an adjusting value for aligning positions in printing in reciprocal movements is calculated by use of: data with the smallest relative printing position misalignment between the first and second alignment pattern elements; and data of optical characteristics close to the data. When the data is largely influence by the disturbance, a range of shifting of relative position is widened than that of the data less influenced by the disturbance so that more data pieces are used to obtain the adjusting value.

Printing position alignment method and printing apparatus

A recording medium discriminating device includes a device for measuring a multi-directional reflection function on a surface of a recording medium and a device for judging the kind of the recording medium based on the results derived from the measurement.

Recording medium discriminating device, ink jet recording apparatus

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Yokohama, Japan

Reiji Hashimoto