Seiko Epson Corporation

Shigeki Kanai

Kenichi Miyazaki

Katsuhiko Iida

A serial printing device that has a wider printing region without elongating the platen shaft. The serial printing device includes a serial printing head (7, 8) mounted on a carriage, a medium feed control device (23), a carriage control device (24), and a data discriminating device (21). The serial printing head includes a plural number of dot forming element series each having a plural number of dot forming elements linearly arrayed in a printing medium feeding direction. The dot forming element series are arrayed in a printing medium width direction. The medium feed control device controls a first printing process wherein, when the carriage is accelerated and moved from a home position at a constant speed for printing, print data is outputted to the serial printing head to print an image of one line by one printing path. In a second printing process, print data is outputted to only the dot forming element series located furthest from the home end of the serial printing head, and an image of one line is printed by a plural number of printing paths as the printing medium is fed in small increments. The data discriminating device discriminates the type of printing process, i.e., the first or the second printing process, based on the print data, and selects the discriminated printing process.

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Nagano, Japan

Shigeki Kanai