Canon Production Printing

A method of printing 3D structures spaced apart from each other and distributed across a 2D background image on a scanning printer comprises the steps of printing swaths for the 3D structures at a low resolution to create 3D structures of a predetermined height, printing swaths for the background image in high resolution, being a manifold of the low resolution. A number of passes for completing a segment of the background image is less than a number of passes for completing a segment of structures. In certain high resolution passes printing of both the background image and the 3D structures is combined, said passes being separated from one another by a number of low resolution passes.

A method for a UV curable printer (5) comprising a medium support surface (11) for supporting the print media, a print head assembly for ejecting droplets of structure ink (S), white ink and coloured ink forming a relief print on the print media and a print controller for controlling the printing of the relief print in layers. Each layer is deposited in a predetermined plurality of passes of the print head assembly over the medium support surface. The print controller receives a print job comprising a colour image with colour information per pixel comprising a colour per pixel which is intended to be achieved by depositing the coloured ink, and a height image with height information per pixel comprising a height per pixel which is intended to be achieved by depositing a plurality of elevation layers of structure ink. The print controller determines besides the plurality of elevation layers at least one anti-contouring layer of structure ink to prevent contouring artefacts and at least coloured layer of coloured ink to form the colour image. The print head assembly subsequently prints the plurality of elevation layers, the at least one anti-contouring layer and the at least one colour layer. The print controller creating a last in time elevation layer intended to be printed in the predetermined plurality of passes, wherein the last in time elevation layer is formed by droplets of structure ink and white ink.

The present invention relates to a print method for printing multilayer prints, wherein an intermediate layer is provided between a first and a third layer. The present invention further relates to a printer suitable for performing such a method. The present invention further relates to a software product.

A method for a UV curable printer comprising a medium support surface for supporting the print media, a print head assembly for ejecting droplets of structure ink, white ink and coloured ink forming a relief print on the print media and a print controller for controlling the printing of the relief print in layers, each layer to be deposited in a predetermined plurality of passes of the print head assembly over the medium support surface. The print controller receives a print job comprising a colour image with colour information per pixel comprising a colour per pixel which is intended to be achieved by depositing the coloured ink, and a height image with height information per pixel comprising a height per pixel which is intended to be achieved by depositing a plurality of elevation layers of structure ink. The print controller determines besides the plurality of elevation layers at least one reflective layer of white ink and at least coloured layer of coloured ink to form the colour image. The print head assembly subsequently printing the plurality of elevation layers, the at least one white layer and the at least one colour layer. The print controller creates a last in time elevation layer intended to be printed in the predetermined plurality of passes, wherein the last in time elevation layer is formed by droplets of structure ink having a fixed coverage per pixel in a last pass of the last in time elevation layer.

A method of printing on a print medium by an inkjet printer, the method comprising the steps of receiving a print job of a digital image to be printed on the print medium, receiving an identification of at least one part of the digital image to be printed on a corresponding part of the print medium for which a specialty ink is intended to be deposited which specialty ink is not available in the inkjet printer, printing the digital image together with a plurality of spaced apart, out-of-plane structures at the corresponding part of the print medium, applying an excess of the specialty ink to the printed structures, wiping off superfluous specialty ink so that the specialty ink only remains in-between the printed structures; and drying the printed medium.

The invention relates to a method for printing a structure. The invention further relates to an object having a structure. In addition, the invention relates to an ink set. The invention also relates to a printing apparatus.

An improved method for determining the positional deviations of nozzles in a printhead array using only a single test pattern is provided by means of the steps of: - printing a test pattern, wherein preferably neighboring nozzles jet non-simultaneously; - sensing the test pattern (30) to determine an array of detected droplet positions (37, 38); - determining an array of nominal nozzle positions (41-45) based on the detected droplet positions (37, 38) and their respective jetting times; - determining a common rotation deviation parameter (Rz1) corresponding to a rotation of the printhead array (1) with respect to a scanning direction (Y) based on the detected droplet positions (37, 38); - transforming the array of nominal nozzle positions (41-45) to compensate for the common rotation deviation parameter (Rz1); - determining positional deviations (dX', dY') of nozzles (21-26) in the printhead array (1) by comparing the transformed array of nominal nozzle positions (41-45) to a reference.

A method for generating print files for a 3D object to be printed in layers on top of each other by means of a 3D printer, the method comprising the steps of a) determining the print files from data input including an intended geometry and colour information, b) simulating a print process using a thin-film equation to predict a geometry of the 3D object to be printed, c) updating the print files based on a deviation between a geometry predicted by the simulation and the intended geometry included in the data input, and d) repeating steps b) and c) until a required accuracy of the predicted geometry is achieved.

An improved method for winding print media (5-7) onto a take-up roller (33) which allows for a wider range print media to be tightly wound up, specifically with a wider range of bending stiffnesses. The method comprises the steps of:- forming a blouse (28) in the print medium (5-7) upstream of the take-up roller (33);- clamping the print medium (5-7) by means of a clamp (30) between the blouse (28) and the take-up roller (33), when the print medium (5-7) is fed into the blouse (28) and when the take-up roller (33) is prevented from rotating;- releasing the clamp (30) when the take-up roller (33) is rotated to wind up print medium (5-7) from the blouse (28),characterized by the step of rotating the take-up roller (33) to adjust a tension in the print medium (5-7) between the blouse (28) and the take-up roller (33) while clamping the print medium (5-7).

Method and printing system for printing layers of at least one resin (25) by means of a printer (1). The printer (1) comprises an inkjet printing assembly which has a plurality of nozzles and configured to jet the layers of the at least one resin (25) in order to form a three-dimensional object, and to jet wrapping material (14) to enclose the three-dimensional object during printing of the three-dimensional object, and a radiation curing system (16) for radiation curing the at least one jetted resin. The method comprises the steps of jetting multiple layers of the wrapping material for enclosing multiple layers of the at least one resin to be jetted, jetting multiple layers of the at least one resin until a total thickness of the multiple jetted layers is sufficiently thick to let the at least one resin comprised in the multiple layers flow strongly enough to cover a full area enclosed by the already jetted multiple layers of the wrapping material, and curing the multiple jetted layers of the at least one resin altogether by the radiation curing system.