Claims
- 1. A method of printing an image from image data, using two pens that in general are not perfectly aligned along a printing-medium advance direction, wherein said two pens are not necessarily the only operating pens present; said method comprising the steps of:determining pen-to-pen mechanical misalignment between said two pens, along the advance direction; based on the determined misalignment, automatically shifting the image data along the advance direction to compensate for at least a portion of the determined misalignment between said two pens; refraining from use of nozzle reservation for accommodating all of the determined misalignment between said two pens; and automatically printing with the shifted data.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein:if the determining step establishes that the pens are aligned within a dot row, then the printing step prints without shifting the data along the advance direction.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein:said plural pens print respective plural kinds of ink.
- 4. The method of claim 3:wherein said plural kinds of ink comprise plural ink colors respectively; and further comprising the step of avoiding color artifacts due to said shifting and refraining steps, by a combination of the steps of: providing such printing medium that is substantially insensitive to relative timing of application of the plural colors respectively; and restricting the shifting step to compensation for only part of the determined misalignment along the advance direction.
- 5. The method of claim 3:wherein said plural kinds of ink comprise plural ink dilutions respectively; and further comprising the step of avoiding tonal artifacts due to said shifting and refraining steps, by a combination of the steps of: providing such printing medium that is substantially insensitive to relative timing of application of the plural dilutions respectively; and restricting the shifting step to compensation for only part of the determined misalignment along the advance direction.
- 6. The method of claim 3, for use in printing said image onto a particular printing medium; and further comprising the step of:avoiding color or tonal artifacts due to said shifting and refraining steps, by providing such printing medium that is substantially insensitive to relative timing of application of the plural kinds of ink respectively.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein:the printing medium is plain paper.
- 8. The method of claim 3, for use in printing said image onto a particular printing medium; and wherein:the printing medium is sensitive to relative timing of application of the plural kinds of ink respectively; and avoiding color or tonal artifacts due to said shifting and refraining steps, by restricting the shifting step to compensation for only part of the determined misalignment along the advance direction.
- 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:employing pen-nozzle selections to compensate for at least part of a remainder of the determined misalignment along the advance direction.
- 10. The method of claim 1, wherein:the shifting step compensates for substantially all of the determined misalignment along the advance direction.
- 11. The method of claim 1, wherein:before said shifting step, some of the image data are naturally allocated to printing in a particular pass; and the shifting step comprises reallocating said some of the image data to printing in a different pass.
- 12. A method of printing an image from image data, using plural pens that in general are not perfectly aligned along a printing-medium advance direction; said method comprising the steps of:determining pen-to-pen mechanical misalignment along the advance direction; based on the determined misalignment, automatically shifting the image data along the advance direction to compensate for at least a portion of the determined misalignment; and automatically printing with said shifted data; and wherein: before said shifting step, some of the image data are allocated to printing in a particular pass; and the shifting step comprises reallocating said some of the image data to printing in a different pass.
- 13. The method of claim 12, wherein:if the determining step establishes that the pens are aligned within a dot row, then the printing step prints with zero shifting of image data along the advance direction.
- 14. The method of claim 12, wherein:said plural pens print respective plural kinds of ink.
- 15. The method of claim 14,wherein said plural kinds of ink comprise plural ink colors respectively.
- 16. The method of claim a 15, further comprising the step of:avoiding color artifacts due to said shifting and reallocating, by a combination of the substeps of: providing such printing medium that is substantially insensitive to relative timing of application of the plural colors respectively; and restricting the shifting step to compensation for only part of the determined misalignment along the advance direction, so as to minimize said reallocating.
- 17. The method of claim 14:wherein said plural kinds of ink comprise plural ink dilutions respectively.
- 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of:avoiding tonal artifacts due to said shifting and reallocating, by a combination of the substeps of: providing such printing medium that is substantially insensitive to relative timing of application of the plural dilutions respectively; and restricting the shifting step to compensation for only part of the determined misalignment along the advance direction, so as to minimize said reallocating.
- 19. The method of claim 14, for use in printing said image onto a particular printing medium; and further comprising the step of:avoiding color or tonal artifacts due to said shifting and reallocating, by providing such printing medium that is substantially insensitive to relative timing of application of the plural kinds of ink respectively.
- 20. The method of claim 19, wherein:the printing medium is plain paper.
- 21. The method of claim 14, for use in printing said image onto a particular printing medium; and:wherein the printing medium is sensitive to relative timing of application of the plural kinds of ink respectively; and further comprising the step of avoiding color or tonal artifacts due to said shifting and reallocating, by restricting the shifting step to compensation for only part of the determined misalignment along the advance direction, so as to minimize said reallocating.
- 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of:employing pen-nozzle selections to compensate for at least part of a remainder of the determined misalignment along the advance direction.
- 23. The method of claim 12, wherein:the shifting step compensates for substantially all of the determined misalignment along the advance direction.
RELATED PATENT DOCUMENTS
A closely related document is another, coowned U. S. utility-patent application filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office substantially contemporaneously with this document—and also hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety into this document. It is in the names of Askeland et al., and entitled “ADAPTIVE INCREMENTAL-PRINTING MODE THAT MAXIMIZES THROUGHPUT WHILE MAINTAINING INTERPEN ALIGNMENT BY NOZZLE SELECTION”—subsequently assigned utility-patent application Ser. No. 09/492,564, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,644 on Aug. 20, 2002.
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