Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Koichi Sugiyama

Tatsuo Sugawara

Shuichi Aratsu

Hitoshi Yauchi

Hiroyuki Sato

Kunio Hakkaku

Takashi Onozato

Yukio Sawano

Kyuichi Fujisawa

Souhei Shibasaki

Hiroshi Takahashi

Hiroto Nagashima

Hiroyuki Murayama

Nakatoshi Satoh

Akihiko Miyashita

To provide a thermal printer capable of easily improving a recording quality, a plurality of recording units, arranged along a carrying path of a recording medium, are respectively provided with a recording head, a platen which opposes the recording head with the carrying path interposed therebetween and is brought into contact with and separated from the recording head, a carrying unit including a carrying roller arranged on the downstream side of the recording head, and a friction unit including a friction roller arranged on the downstream side of the carrying unit in order to prevent the disturbance generated on the downstream side from propagating upstream via the recording medium, between the respective recording units.

Thermal printer including a plurality of recording units

A printing device for printing on a supplied paper, said printing device being provided therein with ink ejecting elements for ejecting ink from ink flow paths having nozzles on its front end and formed in ink jet head, and with a controlling means for electrically controlling said ink ejecting elements, said printing device being characterized in that said controlling means is constructed such that electric controlling conditions with respect to said ink ejecting elements are varied according to types of ink used. By such a construction, it becomes possible to drive ejecting elements in an excellent driving conditions adapted to type of ink used, thereby to deliver ink onto paper in a stable manner for carrying out a good quality of printing.

Printing device and printing method

An image processing method of coloring an image with colors of well harmonized or matched group. Plural color groups, each including plural grouped colors and giving an individually different mental effect or impression, are stored in a memory, and a specified color group is selected from the stored plural color groups to color the image with colors included in the thus selected color group. Also provided is a system for the practice of the method described above. The system comprises image display means for displaying a colored image, memory means for storing plural color groups, each including plural grouped colors and giving an individually different mental effect or impression, area input means for defining one or more areas to be colored with desired colors, color input means for selecting a specified color group from the plural color groups and designating particular colors included in the thus selected color group, and coloring processor means for coloring the areas with the particular colors designated through the color input means.

Image processing method and system for coloring an image with groups of

An air-bubble detection apparatus which detects the presence or absence of the occurrence of air bubbles in an ink passage by detecting if the voltage which develops across an electrostrictive vibrator by mechanical strain as a result of the ink in the ink passage of an ink jet recording head being moved, exceeds an excess voltage above a drive voltage. In addition, a method and apparatus for restoring the recording head to its operating condition, which prevents ink and energy from being wasted and makes efficient printing possible by restoring the recording head in which the occurrence of air bubbles is detected by using the above air-bubble detection apparatus.

Air-bubble detection apparatus of ink jet recording head, and method and

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Tokyo, Japan

Koichi Sugiyama