@node Weaving, ESC/P2, Dithering, Appendices
@appendix Weaving for inkjet printers
@cindex weaving
@noindent
by Charles Briscoe-Smith and Robert Krawitz.
@menu
* Weaving introduction:: Just what is weaving?
* Weaving algorithms:: How to weave.
@end menu
@node Weaving introduction, Weaving algorithms, , Weaving
@appendixsection Introduction
The Epson Stylus Color/Photo printers don't have memory to print using
all of the nozzles in the print head. For example, the Stylus Photo
700/EX has 32 nozzles. At 720 dpi, with an 8" wide image, a single line
requires @math{(8 * 720 * 6 / 8)} bytes, or 4320 bytes (because the
Stylus Photo printers have 6 ink colors). To use 32 nozzles per color
would require 138240 bytes. It's actually worse than that, though,
because the nozzles are spaced 8 rows apart. Therefore, in order to
store enough data to permit sending the page as a simple raster, the
printer would require enough memory to store 256 rows, or 1105920 bytes.
Considering that the Photo EX can print 11" wide, we're looking at more
like 1.5 MB. In fact, these printers are capable of 1440 dpi horizontal
resolution. This would require 3 MB. The printers actually have
64K-256K.
With the newer (740/750 and later) printers it's even worse, since these
printers support multiple dot sizes; of course, the even newer
2880x720 printers don't help either.
Older Epson printers had a mode called @dfn{MicroWeave} (tm). In this
mode, the host fed the printer individual rows of dots, and the printer
bundled them up and sent them to the print head in the correct order to
achieve high quality. This MicroWeave mode still works in new printers,
but in some cases the implementation is very minimal: the printer uses
exactly one nozzle of each color (the first one). This makes printing
extremely slow (more than 30 minutes for one 8.5x11" page), although the
quality is extremely high with no visible banding whatsoever. It's not
good for the print head, though, since no ink is flowing through the
other nozzles. This leads to drying of ink and possible permanent
damage to the print head.
By the way, although the Epson manual says that microweave mode should be
used at 720 dpi, 360 dpi continues to work in much the same way. At 360
dpi, data is fed to the printer one row at a time on all Epson printers.
The pattern that the printer uses to print is very prone to banding.
However, 360 dpi is inherently a low quality mode; if you're using it,
presumably you don't much care about quality. It is possible to do
microweave at 360 DPI, with significantly improved quality.
Except for the Stylus Pro printers (5000, 5500, 7000, 7500, 9000,
9500, and when it's released the 10000), which can do microweave at
any resolution, printers from roughly the Stylus Color 600 and later
do not have the capability to do MicroWeave correctly in many cases
(some printers can do MicroWeave correctly at 720 DPI). Instead, the
host must arrange the output in the order that it will be sent to the
print head. This is a very complex process; the jets in the print
head are spaced more than one row (1/720") apart, so we can't simply
send consecutive rows of dots to the printer. Instead, we have to
pass e. g. the first, ninth, 17th, 25th... rows in order for them to
print in the correct position on the paper. This interleaving process
is called "soft" weaving.
This decision was probably made to save money on memory in the
printer. It certainly makes the driver code far more complicated than
it would be if the printer could arrange the output. Is that a bad
thing? Usually this takes far less CPU time than the dithering
process, and it does allow us more control over the printing process,
e.g. to reduce banding. Conceivably, we could even use this ability
to map out bad jets.
Interestingly, apparently the Windows (and presumably Macintosh) drivers
for most or all Epson printers still list a ``microweave'' mode.
Experiments have demonstrated that this does not in fact use the
``microweave'' mode of the printer. Possibly it does nothing, or it
uses a different weave pattern from what the non-``microweave'' mode
does. This is unnecessarily confusing, at least for people who write
drivers who try to explain them to people who don't.
What makes this interesting is that there are many different ways of of
accomplishing this goal. The naive way would be to divide the image up
into groups of 256 rows (for a printer with 32 jets and a separation of
8 rows), and print all the mod8=0 rows in the first pass, mod8=1 rows in
the second, and so forth. The problem with this approach is that the
individual ink jets are not perfectly uniform; some emit slightly bigger
or smaller drops than others. Since each group of 8 adjacent rows is
printed with the same nozzle, that means that there will be distinct
streaks of lighter and darker bands within the image (8 rows is 1/90",
which is visible; 1/720" is not). Possibly worse is that these patterns
will repeat every 256 rows. This creates banding patterns that are
about 1/3" wide.
So we have to do something to break up this patterning.
Epson does not publish the weaving algorithms that they use in their
bundled drivers. Indeed, their developer web site
(http://www.ercipd.com/isv/edr_docs.htm) does not even describe how to
do this weaving at all; it says that the only way to achieve 720 dpi is
to use MicroWeave. It does note (correctly) that 1440 dpi horizontal
can only be achieved by the driver (i. e. in software). The manual
actually makes it fairly clear how to do this (it requires two passes
with horizontal head movement between passes), and it is presumably
possible to do this with MicroWeave.
The information about how to do this is apparently available under
non-disclosure agreement (NDA). It's actually easy enough to reverse
engineer what's inside a print file with a simple Perl script, which is
supplied with the Gimp-Print distribution as tests/parse-escp2. In any
event, we weren't particularly interested in the weaving patterns Epson
used. There are many factors that go into choosing a good weaving
pattern; we're learning them as we go along. Issues such as drying time
(giving the ink a few seconds more or less to dry can have highly
visible effects) affect the quality of the output.
The Uniprint GhostScript driver has been able to do weaving for a long
time. It uses patterns that must be specified for each choice of
resolution and printer. We preferred an algorithmic approach that
computes a weave pattern for any given choice of inputs. This
obviously requires extensive testing; we developed a test suite
specifically for this purpose.
@node Weaving algorithms, , Weaving introduction, Weaving
@appendixsection Weaving algorithms
@cindex weaving algorithms
I considered a few algorithms to perform the weave. The first one I
devised let me use only @math{(jets-distance_between_jets+1)}
nozzles, or 25. This is OK in principle, but it's slower than using all
nozzles. By playing around with it some more, I came up with an
algorithm that lets me use all of the nozzles, except near the top and
bottom of the page.
This still produces some banding, though. Even better quality can be
achieved by using multiple nozzles on the same line. How do we do
this? In 1440x720 mode, we're printing two output lines at the same
vertical position. However, if we want four passes, we have to
effectively print each line twice. Actually doing this would increase
the density, so what we do is print half the dots on each pass. This
produces near-perfect output, and it's far faster than using (pseudo)
``MicroWeave''.
Yet another complication is how to get near the top and bottom of the
page. This algorithm lets us print to within one head width of the
top of the page, and a bit more than one head width from the bottom.
That leaves a lot of blank space. Doing the weave properly outside of
this region is increasingly difficult as we get closer to the edge of
the paper; in the interior region, any nozzle can print any line, but
near the top and bottom edges, only some nozzles can print. We
originally handled this by using the naive way mentioned above near
the borders, and switching over to the high quality method in the
interior. Unfortunately, this meant that the quality is quite visibly
degraded near the top and bottom of the page. We have since devised
better algorithms that allow printing to the extreme top and bottom of
the region that can physically be printed, with only minimal loss of
quality.
Epson does not advertise that the printers can print at the very top
of the page, although in practice most of them can. The quality is
degraded to some degree, and we have observed that in some cases not
all of the dots get printed. Epson may have decided that the
degradation in quality is sufficient that printing in that region
should not be allowed. That is a valid decision, although we have
taken another approach.
@menu
* Simple weaving algorithms:: Starting to weave.
* Perfect weaving:: Improving the weave.
* Weaving collisions:: Bang!
* What is perfect weaving?:: What makes a ``perfect'' weave?
* Oversampling:: Increasing resolution, reducing banding
@end menu
@node Simple weaving algorithms, Perfect weaving, Weaving algorithms, Weaving algorithms
@appendixsubsec Simple weaving algorithms
The initial problem is to calculate the starting position of each
pass; the row number of the printer's top jet when printing that pass.
Since we assume the paper cannot be reverse-fed, the print head must,
for each pass, start either further down the page than the previous
pass or at the same position. Each pass's start point is therefore at
a non-negative offset from the previous pass's start point.
Once we have a formula for the starting row of each pass, we then turn
that ``inside out'' to get a formula for the pass number containing each
row.
First, let's define how our printer works. We measure vertical
position on the paper in ``rows''; the resolution with which the printer
can position the paper vertically. The print head contains @math{J} ink
jets, which are spaced @math{S} rows apart.
Consider a very simple case: we want to print a page as quickly as
possible, and we mostly don't care how sparse the printing is, so long
as it's fairly even.
It's pretty obvious how to do this. We make one pass with the print
head, printing @math{J} lines of data, each line @math{S} rows after the
previous one. We then advance the paper by @math{S*J} rows and print
the next row. For example, if @math{J=7} and @math{S=4}, this method
can be illustrated like this:
@example
pass number
| row number------->
| | 111111111122222222223333333333444444444455555555556666666666
| 0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789
0 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
1 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
2 \-----------------------/ *---*---*---*---*---*-
7 jets \---/
4 rows offset from one jet to the next
\---------------------------/
7*4=28 rows offset from one pass to the next
@end example
In these examples, the vertical axis can be thought of as the time axis,
with the pass number shown at the left margin, while the row number runs
horizontally. A @samp{*} shows each row printed by a pass, and a row of
@samp{-} is used to link together the rows printed by one pass of the
print head. The first pass is numbered @samp{0} and starts at row 0.
Each subsequent pass @math{p} starts at row @math{p*S*J}. Each pass
prints @math{J} lines, each line being @math{S} rows after the previous
one. (For ease of viewing this file on a standard terminal, I'm
clipping the examples at column 80.)
This method covers the whole page with lines printed evenly @math{S}
rows apart. However, we want to fill in all the other rows with
printing to get a full-density page (we're ignoring oversampling at this
stage). Where we have previously printed a single pass, we'll now print
a ``pass block'': we print extra passes to fill in the empty rows. A
naive implementation might look like this:
@example
0 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
1 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
2 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
3 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
4 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
5 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
6 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
7 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
8 *---*---*---*---*---*-
9 *---*---*---*---*---*
10 *---*---*---*---*---
11 *---*---*---*---*--
@end example
@noindent
(Now you can see why this process is called ``weaving''!)
@node Perfect weaving, Weaving collisions, Simple weaving algorithms, Weaving algorithms
@appendixsubsec Perfect weaving
@cindex perfect weave
This simple weave pattern prints every row, but will give conspicuous
banding patterns for the reasons discussed above.
Let's start improving this for our simple case. We can reduce banding
by making sure that any given jet never prints a row too close to
another row printed by the same jet. This means we want to space the
rows printed by a given jet evenly down the page. In turn, this
implies we want to advance the paper by as nearly an equal amount
after each pass as possible.
Each pass block prints @math{S*J} lines in @math{S} passes. The first
line printed in each pass block is @math{S*J} rows lower on the page
than the first line printed in the previous pass block. Therefore, if
we advance the paper by @math{J} rows between each pass, we can print
the right number of passes in each block and advance the paper perfectly
evenly.
Here's what this ``perfect'' weave looks like:
@example
start of full weave
|
0 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
1 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
2 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
3 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
4 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
5 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
6 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
7 *---*---*---*---*---*---*
8 *---*---*---*---*---*-
9 *---*---*---*--
10 *---*---
11 *
@end example
You'll notice that, for the first few rows, this weave is too sparse.
It is not until the row marked ``start of full weave'' that every
subsequent row is printed. We can calculate this start position as
follows:
@example
@math{start = (S-1) * (J-1)}
@end example
For the moment, we will ignore this problem with the weave. We'll
consider later how to fill in the missing rows.
Let's look at a few more examples of perfect weaves:
@noindent
@math{S=2}, @math{J=7}, @math{start=(2-1)*(7-1)=6}:
@example
starting row of full weave
|
0 *-*-*-*-*-*-*
1 *-*-*-*-*-*-*
2 *-*-*-*-*-*-*
3 *-*-*-*-*-*-*
4 *-*-*-*-*-*-*
5 *-*-*-*-*-*-*
6 *-*-*-*-*-*-*
7 *-*-*-*-*-*-*
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=7}, @math{J=2}, @math{start=6}:
@example
start
|
0 *------*
1 *------*
2 *------*
3 *------*
4 *------*
5 *------*
6 *------*
7 *------*
8 *------*
9 *------*
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=4}, @math{J=13}, @math{start=36}:
@example
start
|
0 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
1 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
2 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
3 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*--
4 *---*---*---*---*---*---*-
5 *---*---*---*
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=13}, @math{J=4}, @math{start=36}:
@example
start
|
0 *------------*------------*------------*
1 *------------*------------*------------*
2 *------------*------------*------------*
3 *------------*------------*------------*
4 *------------*------------*------------*
5 *------------*------------*------------*
6 *------------*------------*------------*
7 *------------*------------*------------*
8 *------------*------------*------------*
9 *------------*------------*------------*
10 *------------*------------*-----------
11 *------------*------------*-------
12 *------------*------------*---
13 *------------*------------
14 *------------*--------
15 *------------*----
16 *------------*
17 *---------
18 *-----
19 *-
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=8}, @math{J=5}, @math{start=28}:
@example
start
|
0 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
1 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
2 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
3 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
4 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
5 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
6 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
7 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
8 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
9 *-------*-------*-------*-------*
10 *-------*-------*-------*---
11 *-------*-------*------
12 *-------*-------*-
13 *-------*----
14 *-------
15 *--
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=9}, @math{J=5}, @math{start=32}:
@example
start
|
0 *--------*--------*--------*--------*
1 *--------*--------*--------*--------*
2 *--------*--------*--------*--------*
3 *--------*--------*--------*--------*
4 *--------*--------*--------*--------*
5 *--------*--------*--------*--------*
6 *--------*--------*--------*--------*
7 *--------*--------*--------*--------*
8 *--------*--------*--------*--------*
9 *--------*--------*--------*-----
10 *--------*--------*--------*
11 *--------*--------*----
12 *--------*--------
13 *--------*---
14 *-------
15 *--
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=6}, @math{J=7}, @math{start=30}:
@example
start
|
0 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
1 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
2 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
3 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
4 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
5 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
6 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----
7 *-----*-----*-----*-----*----
8 *-----*-----*-----*---
9 *-----*-----*--
10 *-----*-
11 *
@end example
@node Weaving collisions, What is perfect weaving?, Perfect weaving, Weaving algorithms
@appendixsubsec Weaving collisions
@cindex collisions
@cindex weaving collisions
This perfect weave is not possible in all cases. Let's look at another
example:
@noindent
@math{S=6}, @math{J=4}:
@example
0 *-----*-----*-----*
1 *-----*-----*-----*
2 *-----*-----*-----*
3 *-----*-----*-----*
4 ^ *-^---*-----*-----*
5 | ^ | *-^---*-----*-----*
OUCH! ^ | ^
| |
@end example
@noindent
Here we have a collision. Some lines printed in later passes overprint
lines printed by earlier passes. We can see why by considering which
row number is printed by a given jet number @math{j} (numbered from 0)
of a given pass, @math{p}:
@example
@math{row(p, j) = p*J + j*S}
@end example
Because @math{J=4} and @math{S=6} have a common factor of 2, jet 2 of
pass 0 prints the same row as jet 0 of pass 3:
@example
@math{row(0, 2) = 0*4 + 2*6 = 12}
@math{row(3, 0) = 3*4 + 0*6 = 12}
@end example
In fact, with this particular weave pattern, jets 0 and 1 of pass
@math{p+3} always overprint jets 2 and 3 of pass @math{p}. We'll
represent overprinting rows by a @samp{^} in our diagrams, and correct
rows by @samp{*}:
@noindent
@math{S=6} @math{J=4}:
@example
0 *-----*-----*-----*
1 *-----*-----*-----*
2 *-----*-----*-----*
3 ^-----^-----*-----*
4 ^-----^-----*-----*
5 ^-----^-----*-----*
@end example
@node What is perfect weaving?, Oversampling, Weaving collisions, Weaving algorithms
@appendixsubsec What makes a ``perfect'' weave?
@cindex perfect weave
So what causes the perfect weave cases to be perfect, and the other
cases not to be? In all the perfect cases above, @math{S} and @math{J}
are relatively prime (i.e. their greatest common divisor (GCD) is 1).
As we mentioned above, @math{S=6} and @math{J=4} have a common factor,
which causes the overprinting. Where @math{S} and @math{J} have a GCD
of 1, they have no common factor other than 1 and, as a result, no
overprinting occurs. If @math{S} and @math{J} are not relatively prime,
their common factor will cause overprinting.
We can work out the greatest common divisor of a pair of natural numbers
using Euler's algorithm:
@itemize
@item Start with the two numbers: (e.g.) 9, 24
@item Swap them if necessary so that the larger one comes first: 24, 9
@item Subtract the second number from the first: 15, 9
@item Repeat until the first number becomes smaller: 6, 9
@item Swap the numbers again, so the larger one comes first: 9, 6
@item Subtract again: 3, 6
@item Swap: 6, 3
@item Subtract: 3, 3
@item And again: 0, 3
@item When one of the numbers becomes 0, the other number is the GCD of the two numbers you started with.
@end itemize
These repeated subtractions can be done with C's @samp{%} operator, so we
can write this in C as follows:
@example
unsigned int
gcd(unsigned int x, unsigned int y)
@{
if (y == 0)
return x;
while (x != 0) @{
if (y > x)
swap (&x, &y);
x %= y;
@}
return y;
@}
@end example
@samp{gcd(S,J)} will feature quite prominently in our weaving algorithm.
If @math{0 <= j < J}, there should only be a single pair @math{(p, j)}
for any given row number. If @math{S} and @math{J} are not relatively
prime, this assumption breaks down. (For conciseness, let
@math{G=@r{GCD}(S,J)}.)
@noindent
@math{S=8}, @math{J=6}, @math{G=2}:
@example
0 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
1 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
2 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
3 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
4 ^-------^-------^-------*-------*-------*
5 ^-------^-------^-------*-------*-------*
@end example
In this case, jets 0, 1 and 2 of pass @math{p+4} collide with jets 3, 4
and 5 of pass @math{p}.
How can we calculate these numbers? Suppose we were to print using
fewer jets, say @math{J/G} jets. The greatest common divisor of
@math{J/G} and @math{S} is 1, enabling a perfect weave. But to get a
perfect weave, we also have to advance the paper by a factor of @math{G}
less:
@example
0 *-------*-------* - - -
1 *-------*-------* - - -
2 *-------*-------* - - -
3 *-------*-------* - - -
4 *-------*-------* - - -
5 *-------*-------* - - -
@end example
If we left the paper advance alone, we'd get a sparse weave; only one
row can be printed every @math{G} rows:
@example
0 *-------*-------* - - -
1 *-------*-------* - - -
2 *-------*-------* - - -
3 *-------*-------* - - -
4 *-------*-------* - - -
5 *-------*-------* - - -
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
These rows need filling in.
@end example
The rows that would have been printed by the jets we've now omitted
(shown as @samp{-}) are printed by other jets on later passes.
Let's analyse this. Consider how a pass @math{p} could collide with
pass 0. Pass @math{p} starts at offset @math{p*J}. Pass 0 prints at
rows which are multiples of @math{S}. If @math{p*J} is exactly
divisible by @math{S}, a collision has occurred, unless @math{p*J >=
J*S} (which will happen when we finish a pass block).
So, we want to find @math{p} and @math{q} such that @math{p*J=q*S} and
@math{p} is minimised. Then @math{p} is the number of rows before a
collision, and @math{q} is the number of jets in pass 0 which are not
involved in the collision. To do this, we find the lowest common
multiple of @math{J} and @math{S}, which is @math{L=J*S/G}. @math{L/J}
is the number of rows before a collision, and @math{L/S} is the number
of jets in the first pass not involved in the collision.
Thus, we see that the first @math{J/G} rows printed by a given pass are
not overprinted by any later pass. However, the rest of the rows
printed by pass @math{p} are overprinted by the first
@math{J-(J/G)} jets of pass @math{p+(S/G)}. We will use @math{C}
to refer to @math{S/G}, the number of rows after which a collision
occurs.
Another example:
@noindent
@math{S=6}, @math{J=9}, @math{G=3}, @math{C=S/G=2}:
@example
0 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
1 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
2 ^-----^-----^-----^-----^-----^-----*-----*-----*
3 ^-----^-----^-----^-----^-----^-----*-----*-----*
4 ^-----^-----^-----^-----^-----^-----*-----
5 ^-----^-----^-----^-----^-----^--
^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^
These rows need filling in.
@end example
@noindent
In this case, the first @math{J-(J/G) = 9-9/3 = 6} jets of pass
@math{p+(6/3)=p+2} collide with the last 6 jets of pass @math{p}. Only
one row in every @math{G=2} rows is printed by this weave.
@noindent
@math{S=9}, @math{J=6}, @math{G=3}, @math{C=3}:
@example
0 *--------*--------*--------*--------*--------*
1 *--------*--------*--------*--------*--------*
2 *--------*--------*--------*--------*--------*
3 ^--------^--------^--------^--------*--------*
4 ^--------^--------^--------^--------*--------*
5 ^--------^--------^--------^--------*--------*
@end example
@noindent
Here, the first @math{J-(J/G) = 6-6/3 = 4} jets of pass
@math{p+(9/3)=p+3} collide with the last 4 jets of pass @math{p}.
Note that, in these overprinting cases, only rows divisible by @math{G}
are ever printed. The other rows, those not divisible by @math{G}, are
not touched by this weave.
We can modify our weave pattern to avoid overprinting any rows and
simultaneously fill in the missing rows. Instead of using @math{J}
alone to determine the start of each pass from the previous pass, we
adjust the starting position of some passes. As mentioned before, we
will divide the page into pass blocks, with @math{S} passes in each
block. This ensures that the first jet of the first pass in a block
prints the row which the @math{J}th jet of the first pass of the
previous block would have printed, if the print head had one extra jet.
Looking back at an example of a perfect weave, we can divide it into
pass blocks:
@noindent
@math{S=7}, @math{J=2}, @math{G=1}:
@example
imaginary extra jet
|
0 *------* * <--start of pass block 0
1 *------* |
2 *------* |
3 *------*|
4 *-----|*
5 *---|--*
6 *-|----*
|
7 *------* <--start of pass block 1
8 *------*
9 *------*
@end example
We can now calculate the start of a given pass by reference to its pass
block. The first pass of pass block @math{b} always starts at row
@math{(b*S*J)}. The start row of each of the other passes in the block
are calculated using offsets from this row.
For the example above, there are 7 passes in each pass block, and their
offsets are 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. The next pass block is offset
@math{S*J=14} rows from the start of the current pass block.
The simplest way to modify the ``perfect'' weave pattern to give a
correct weave in cases where @math{G!=1} is to simply change any offsets
which would result in a collision, until the collision disappears.
Every printed row in the weave, as we have shown it up to now, is
separated from each of its neighbouring printed rows by @math{G} blank
rows. We will add an extra offset to each colliding pass in such a way
that we push the pass onto these otherwise blank rows.
We have seen that, unless @math{G=1}, the plain weave pattern results in
each pass colliding with the pass @math{S/G} passes before. We will now
subdivide our pass block into subblocks, each consisting of @math{B=S/G}
passes. There are therefore @math{G} subblocks in a pass block.
For each subblock, the passes in that subblock have a constant offset
added to them. The offset is different for each subblock in a block.
There are many ways we can choose the offsets, but the simplest is to
make the offset equal to the subblock number (starting from 0).
Thus, the passes in the first subblock in each pass block remain at the
offsets we've already calculated from @math{J}. The passes in the
second subblock each have 1 added to their offset, the passes in the
third subblock have 2 added, and so on. Thus, the offset of pass
@math{p} (numbered relative to the start of its pass block) is @math{p*J
+ @r{floor}(p/B)}.
This gives us a weave pattern looking like this:
@noindent
@math{S=6}, @math{J=9}, @math{G=3}, @math{B=2}:
@example
0 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
1 ^ *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
2 | +-> *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
3 | | *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
4 | | +-> *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*---
5 | | | *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
6 | | | +-> *-----*-----*-----*-----
7 | | | | *-----*-----*--
| | | start of pass block 1
| | | (offset returns to 0)
| | start of subblock 2 (offset 2 rows)
| start of subblock 1 (following passes offset by 1 row)
start of passblock 0, subblock 0 (pass start calculated as p*J)
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=9}, @math{J=6}, @math{G=3}, @math{B=3}:
@example
0 *--------*--------*--------*--------*--------*
1 *--------*--------*--------*--------*--------*
2 *--------*--------*--------*--------*--------*
3 *--------*--------*--------*--------*--------*
4 *--------*--------*--------*--------*--------*
5 *--------*--------*--------*--------*--------*
6 *--------*--------*--------*--------*---
7 *--------*--------*--------*------
8 *--------*--------*--------*
9 *--------*--------*-----
10 \---/ *--------*--------
11 small offset *--------*--
12 *----
@end example
This method of choosing offsets for subblocks can result in an occasional
small offset (as shown above) between one pass and the next, particularly
when @math{G} is large compared to @math{J}. For example:
@noindent
@math{S=8}, @math{J=4}, @math{G=4}, @math{B=2}:
@example
0 *-------*-------*-------*
1 *-------*-------*-------*
2 *-------*-------*-------*
3 *-------*-------*-------*
4 *-------*-------*-------*
5 *-------*-------*-------*
6 *-------*-------*-------*
7 *-------*-------*-------*
8 *-------*-------*-------*
9 \/ *-------*-------*-------*
very small offset!
@end example
We can plot the offset against the subblock number as follows:
@example
subblock number
| offset
| |
| 0123
0 *
1 *
2 *
3 *
0 *
1 *
2 *
3 *
@end example
@noindent
The discontinuity in this plot results in the small offset between
passes.
As we said at the beginning, we want the offsets from each pass to the
next to be as similar as possible. We can fix this by calculating the
offset for a given subblock b as follows:
@example
offset(b) = 2*b , if b < ceiling(G/2)
= 2*(G-b)-1 , otherwise
@end example
We can visualise this as follows, for @math{G=10}:
@example
0123456789
0 *
1 *
2 *
3 *
4 *
5 *
6 *
7 *
8 *
9 *
0 *
1 *
2 *
3 *
4 *
5 *
6 *
7 *
8 *
9 *
@end example
@noindent
and for @math{G=11}:
@example
1
01234567890
0 *
1 *
2 *
3 *
4 *
5 *
6 *
7 *
8 *
9 *
10 *
0 *
1 *
2 *
3 *
4 *
5 *
6 *
7 *
8 *
9 *
10 *
@end example
@noindent
This gives a weave looking like this:
@noindent
@math{S=12}, @math{J=6}, @math{G=6}, @math{B=2}:
@example
0 *-----------*-----------*-----------*-----------*-----------*
1 *-----------*-----------*-----------*-----------*-----------*
2 *-----------*-----------*-----------*-----------*-----------*
3 *-----------*-----------*-----------*-----------*---------
4 *-----------*-----------*-----------*-----------*-
5 *-----------*-----------*-----------*-------
6 *-----------*-----------*-----------*
7 *-----------*-----------*------
8 *-----------*-----------*--
9 *-----------*--------
10 *-----------*----
11 *----------
12 *-----
@end example
This method ensures that the offset between passes is always in the range
@math{[J-2,J+2]}.
(This might seem odd, but it occurs to me that a good weave pattern
might also make a good score for bell ringers. When church bells are
rung, a list of ``changes'' are used. For example, if 8 bells are being
used, they will, at first, be rung in order: 12345678. If the first
change is for bells 5 and 6, the bells will then be rung in the order
12346578. If the second change is 1 and 2, the next notes are 21346578.
After a long list of changes, the order the bells are rung in can become
quite complex.
For a group of bell-ringers to change the order of the notes, they must
each either delay their bell's next ring, hasten it, or keep it the same
as the time it takes to ring all the bells once. The length of time
between each ring of a given bell can only be changed a little each
time, though; with an ink-jet weave pattern, we want the same to apply
to the distance between passes.)
Finally, knowing the number of jets @math{J} and their separation
@math{S}, we can calculate the starting row of any given pass @math{p}
as follows:
@example
passesperblock = S
passblock = floor(p / passesperblock)
offsetinpassblock = p - passblock * passesperblock
subblocksperblock = gcd(S, J)
passespersubblock = S / subblocksperblock
subpassblock = floor(offsetinpassblock / passespersubblock)
if subpassblock < ceiling(subblocksperblock/2)
subblockoffset = 2*subpassblock
else
subblockoffset = 2*(subblocksperblock-subpassblock)-1
startingrow = passblock * S * J + offsetinpassblock * J + subblockoffset
@end example
We can simplify this down to the following:
@example
subblocksperblock = gcd(S, J)
subpassblock = floor((p % S) * subblocksperblock / S)
if subpassblock * 2 < subblocksperblock
subblockoffset = 2*subpassblock
else
subblockoffset = 2*(subblocksperblock-subpassblock)-1
startingrow = p * J + subblockoffset
@end example
So the row number of jet @math{j} of pass @math{p} is
@example
subblocksperblock = gcd(S, J)
subblockoffset(p)
= 2*subpassblock , if subpassblock * 2 < subblocksperblock
= 2*(subblocksperblock-subpassblock)-1 , otherwise
where
subpassblock = floor((p % S) * subblocksperblock / S)
row(j, p) = p * J + subblockoffset(p) + j * S
@end example
Together with the inequality @math{0 <= j < J}, we can use this
definition in reverse to calculate the pass number containing a given
row, @math{r}. Working out the inverse definition involves a little
guesswork, but one possible result is as follows. Given a row,
@math{r}, which is known to be the first row of a pass, we can calculate
the pass number as follows:
@example
subblocksperblock = gcd(S, J)
subblockoffset = r % subblocksperblock
pass = (r - subblockoffset) / J
@end example
If @math{G==1}, we can determine the pass number with this algorithm:
@example
offset = r % J
pass = (r - offset) / J
while (offset % S != 0)
@{
pass--
offset += J
@}
jet = offset / S
@end example
Generalising, we come up with this algorithm. Given @math{r}, @math{S}
and @math{J}:
@example
G = gcd(S, J)
passespersubblock = S/G
subblockoffset = r % G
subpassblock = subblockoffset / 2 , if subblockoffset % 2 == 0
= G - (subblockoffset+1)/2 , otherwise
baserow = r - subblockoffset - (subpassblock * passespersubblock * J)
offset = baserow % J
pass = (baserow - offset) / J
while (offset % S != 0)
@{
offset += J
pass -= 1
@}
subblockretreat = floor(pass / passespersubblock) % G
pass -= subblockretreat * passespersubblock
pass += subpassblock * passespersubblock
jet = (r - subblockoffset - pass * J) / S
@end example
Let's look at some examples of imperfect but correct weave patterns:
@noindent
@math{S=6}, @math{J=4}, @math{@r{GCD}=2},
@*passesperblock=@math{S}=6,
@*passespersubblock=@math{S/G}=6/2=3:
@example
0 *-----*-----*-----*
1 *-----*-----*-----*
2 *-----*-----*-----*
3 *-----*-----*-----*
4 *-----*-----*-----*
5 *-----*-----*-----*
6 *-----*-----*-----*
7 *-----*-----*-----*
8 *-----*-----*-----*
9 *-----*-----*-----*
10 *-----*-----*-----*
11 *-----*-----*-----*
12 *-----*-----*-----*
13 *-----*-----*-----*
14 *-----*-----*-----*
15 *-----*-----*----
16 *-----*-----*
17 *-----*--
18 *-----
19 *-
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=8}, @math{J=6}, @math{G=2},
@*passesperblock=@math{S}=8,
@*passespersubblock=@math{S/G}=8/2=4:
@example
0 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
1 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
2 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
3 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
4 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
5 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
6 *-------*-------*-------*-------*-------*
7 *-------*-------*-------*-------*--
8 *-------*-------*-------*-----
9 *-------*-------*-------
10 *-------*-------*-
11 *-------*---
12 *----
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=6}, @math{J=12}, @math{G=6},
@*passesperblock=@math{S}=6,
@*passespersubblock=@math{S/G}=6/6=1:
@example
0 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
1 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*---
2 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-
3 *-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*
4 *-----*-----*-----*-----*--
5 *-----*-----*----
6 *-----
@end example
We have now solved the basic weaving problem. There are two further
refinements we need to consider: oversampling, and filling in the
missing rows at the start of the weave.
@node Oversampling, , What is perfect weaving?, Weaving algorithms
@appendixsubsec Oversampling
@cindex oversampling
By oversampling, we mean printing on the same row more than once.
There are two reasons for oversampling: to increase the horizontal
resolution of the printout and to reduce banding.
Oversampling to increase horizontal resolution is necessary because,
although the printer might be able to position an ink drop to, for
example, 1/1440" horizontally, it may not be able to lay down two such
drops 1/1440" apart. If it can print two drops 1/720" apart, 2x
oversampling will be necessary to get a 1/1440" horizontal resolution.
If it can only print two drops 1/360" apart, 4x oversampling will be
necessary for a 1/1440" horizontal resolution. The printer enforces
this ``drop spacing'' by only accepting raster passes with a horizontal
resolution matching the spacing with which it can print dots, so we
must print passes at different horizontal positions if we are to
obtain a higher horizontal resolution. (Another reason it does this
may be to reduce the amount of memory needed in the printer.)
Oversampling can also be done to decrease the banding apparent in an
image. By splitting a row into two or more sets of dots (``lines'') and
printing each line on the same row, but with a different nozzle for
each line, we can get a smoother print.
To quantify these two kinds of oversampling, we'll introduce two new
constants: @math{H} shows how many different horizontal offsets we want
to print at (the ``horizontal oversampling'') while @math{O} shows how
many times we want to print each row, over and above the number of times
necessary for horizontal oversampling (the ``extra oversampling'').
It is necessary for all the lines printed by a given pass to have the
same horizontal offset, but there need not be any relation between
them in terms of extra oversampling. For the moment, however, we will
treat all oversampling as potentially requiring this alignment; all
lines in one pass must be derived from the original row data in the
same way. Thus, we'll assume @math{O=1} for now.
So, how do we do this oversampling? In fact, it can be done easily:
advance the paper by a factor of @math{H} less between each pass. We'll
define a new variable, @math{A}, to show how much we advance the paper
between passes. Previously, we'd have defined @math{A=J}; we now let
@math{A=J/H}. This also affects our pass blocks. Printing one pass
block used to involve advancing the paper @math{S*J} rows; it now
advances the paper @math{S*J/H} rows. We therefore name a group of
@math{H} pass blocks a ``band''. Printing one band involves advancing
the paper @math{S*J} rows, as a pass block did before.
To keep our weave pattern working correctly, so that overprinting does
not occur within a pass block, we also have to redefine @math{G} as
@math{@r{GCD}(S,A)}. Here's an example of an oversampled weave pattern:
@noindent
@math{S=4}, @math{J=10}, @math{H=2}, @math{A=J/H=10/2=5},
@math{G=@r{GCD}(4,5)=1},
@*passesperblock=@math{S}=4,
@*passespersubblock=@math{S/G}=4/1=4:
@example
0 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
1 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
2 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
3 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
4 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
5 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
6 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
7 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
8 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
9 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
10 *---*---*---*---*---*---*---
11 *---*---*---*---*---*--
12 *---*---*---*---*-
13 *---*---*---*
14 *---*---
15 *--
@end example
Now we have to determine which line is printed by each jet on each
pass. If we number each line generated as we split up a row, we can
use these numbers. We'll number the lines in our diagram by replacing
the @samp{*}s with integers in the range [0@dots{}@math{H-1}].
Overprinting occurs once per pass block, so we can simply print pass
block 0 with line 0, pass block 1 with line 1, pass block 2 with line
2, etc, wrapping to 0 when we've run out of lines:
@example
0 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
1 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
2 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
3 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
4 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
5 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
6 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
7 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
8 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
9 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
10 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---
11 0---0---0---0---0---0--
12 1---1---1---1---1-
13 1---1---1---1
14 1---1---
15 1--
@end example
@noindent
@math{S=4}, @math{J=12}, @math{H=2}, @math{A=J/H=12/2=6}, @math{G=@r{GCD}(4,6)=2},
@*passesperblock=@math{S}=4,
@*passespersubblock=@math{S/G}=4/2=2:
@example
0 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
1 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
2 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
3 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
4 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
5 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
6 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
7 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1--
8 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0-
9 0---0---0---0---0---0---
10 0---0---0---0---0
11 0---0---0--
12 1---1-
@end example
But what do we do if @math{J} is not an exact multiple of @math{H}?
This is a difficult problem, which I struggled with for quite a few days
before giving in and taking the easy (but less elegant) way out. The
easy solution is to round @math{J/H} down, then add on the accumulated
error at the end of each band.
@noindent
@math{S=4}, @math{J=11}, @math{H=2} @math{A=@r{floor}(J/H)=@r{floor}(11/2)=5}, @math{G=@r{GCD}(4,5)},
@*passesperblock=@math{S}=4,
@*passespersubblock=@math{S/G}=4/1=4
@example
Band 0:
0 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
1 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
2 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
3 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
4 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
5 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
6 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1
7 1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---1---
Band 1:
8 | 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0-
9 \-----------------------------------------/ 0---0---0---0---0---0---0---0
10 S*J rows 0---0---0---0---0---0---
11 0---0---0---0---0--
12 1---1---1---1-
13 1---1---1
14 1---
@end example
We can calculate the starting row and subpass number of a given pass
in this scheme as follows:
@example
A = floor(J / H)
subblocksperblock = gcd(S, A)
subpassblock = floor((p % S) * subblocksperblock / S)
if subpassblock * 2 < subblocksperblock
subblockoffset = 2*subpassblock
else
subblockoffset = 2*(subblocksperblock-subpassblock)-1
band = floor(P / (S * H))
passinband = P % (S * H)
startingrow = band * S * J + passinband * A + subblockoffset
subpass = passinband / S
@end example
So the row number of jet @math{j} of pass @math{p} is
@example
A = floor(J / H)
subblocksperblock = gcd(S, A)
subblockoffset(p)
= 2*subpassblock , if subpassblock * 2 < subblocksperblock
= 2*(subblocksperblock-subpassblock)-1 , otherwise
where
subpassblock = floor((p % S) * subblocksperblock / S)
band(p) = floor(p / (S * H))
passinband(p) = p % (S * H)
row(j, p) = band(p) * S * J + passinband(p) * A + subblockoffset(p) + j * S
row(j, p) = p * J + subblockoffset(p) + j * S
@end example
To be continued@enddots{}