US Patent 7296868 Ink jet printing system

In an ink jet printing apparatus in which satellites are produced, it is an object to minimize image impairments caused by the satellites in a variety of print modes. To this end, index patterns are prepared which have different sizes for different print modes. This enables satellites to land at print positions of main dots in other pixels in any of the print modes that have different distances between main dots and satellites. It is therefore possible to minimize image impairments caused by the satellites and to output a crisp image.