Victor Company of Japan, Limited

Yutaka Mizoguchi

Itsuo Takanashi

Toshinori Takahashi

Hideshi Tanaka

Hiroki Kitamura

Tadao Shinya

Kenichi Miyazaki

Terumi Ohara

Katsuhiko Terada

Toru Nibe

A thermal printing apparatus for printing input gradational images, characters and figures by using multilevel density which can appropriately regulate the levels of the densities representing the gradational images etc. to be printed by a linear thermal head having n heating resistors arranged in a line, the printing apparatus is provided with a density control unit for regulating, for example, the multilevel durations for energizing the heating resistors in accordance with n gradational printing data each corresponding to respective one of said resistors, and a data conversion unit, receiving a set of n original data for each line as the printing data, for producing p sets of n data for p split lines on the basis of the n original data, where p is an integer being equal to or greater than two, the p sets of n data being sequentially supplied to the density control unit set by set to print each line corresponding to the input gradational image, character and figure printing data as a plurality of split lines corresponding thereto, thereby increasing uniformity of density of print lines of pixels of the input gradational images, characters and figures by overlapping low density portions of dotes of adjacent split lines.

Thermal printing apparatus

A heat-sensitive hot-melt image transfer sheet transfers an ink image to a recording sheet when selectively heated by the heating element of the thermal head of a thermal printer. The image transfer sheet comprises a base coated on a surface thereof with a matrix of circular hot-melt ink dots at a constant pitch. The hot-melt ink dots are selectively meltable with heat applied through the base by the heating elements for transferring an ink image to the recording sheet held against the matrix of hot-melt ink dots.

Heat-sensitive hot-melt image transfer sheet

A method for transferring a hot-melt transparent protective material comprising steps of; contacting an ink sheet on which one or more color hot-melt ink layers have been provided with a moving recording medium, pressing and heating a thermal head system having an array of heat elements from above the ink sheet to print desired information, contacting a protective material sheet on which a hot-melt transparent protective material layer has been provided, with a printed surface of the recording medium, and pressing and heating the thermal head system from above the protective material sheet to transfer the hot-melt transparent protective material onto a surface of the picture and to apply thereon an overcoat of the hot-melt transparent protective material having a specific pattern. Another method for transferring a hot-melt transparent protective material comprises a step of transferring the hot-melt transparent protective material plural times onto the surface of the picture.

Method for transferring hot-melt transparent protective material to a

A thermal printing apparatus prints input gradational images, characters and figures by using multilevel density regulates the levels of the densities representing the gradiational images etc. to be printed by a linear thermal head having n heating resistors arranged in a row. The printing apparatus is provided with a density control unit for regulating, for example, the multilevel durations for energizing the heating resistors in accordance with n gradational printing data each corresponding to a respective one of said resistors, and a data conversion unit, receiving as printing data a set of n original data for each a plurality of lines parallel with the row of n resistors, for producing p sets of n data for p split lines on the basis of the n original data, where p is an integer equal to or greater than two, each of the p split lines being disposed in an area in which the line corresponding to the printing data should be printed, in parallel with the row of n resistors, the p sets of n data being sequentially supplied to the density control unit set by set to print the original line corresponding to the printing data by printing the split lines corresponding to the original line split line by split line so by shifting the linear thermal head in a direction perpendicular to the row of n resistors every time each of the split lines is printed, that each of the n printing data is represented by p dots.

A thermal printer comprises a thermal head and a printing data output circuit outputting printing data. A portion of the printing data is copied. The copied portion of the printing data is added to a head of the printing data to form a combination of the copied portion and the printing data. The data combination is outputted to the thermal head. The thermal head is driven with the copied portion to preheat the thermal head. Then, the thermal head is driven with the printing data to perform actual printing.

Thermal printer

A gradation control device for a thermal ink-transfer type printing apparatus controls an applying time of a current to each of heating elements of a thermal printing head depending on a voltage drop introduced between a power source and the thermal printing head, so that it is possible to constantly print the same gradation level with the same printing dot size regardless of the printing data.

Gradation control device for thermal ink-transfer type printing apparatus

A color correcting circuit for thermal printer comprises a first circuit for obtaining a first degree correction operation result, a second circuit for obtaining a second degree correction operation result, and a difference limiting circuit for selectively outputting a correction data. The first degree correction operation makes the relationship between the density of an input image and the density of an output image linear for each primary color. The second degree correction operation reduces a difference between the density of the input image and the density of the output image by use of the method of least squares for each primary color. The difference limiting circuit selectively outputs as the correction data the second degree correction operation result when a difference between the first and second degree correction operation results falls within a predetermined range of a boundary value, and selectively outputs as the correction data a value which is deviated from the first degree correction operation result by the boundary value when the difference falls outside the predetermined range of the boundary value. The color correction of the input image is carried out based on the correction data outputted from the difference limiting circuit.

Color correcting circuit for thermal printer selectively outputting a

In a thermal printer with a thermal head having a plurality of heating elements arranged in line in a direction of main scanning, each of the heating elements having a plurality of heating sections arranged in a sub scanning direction with a predetermined pitch between two consecutive heating sections, it is detected first whether high density mode or low density mode is instructed and all of the heating elements of the thermal head are energized when the high density mode has been instructed, or every other heating element is energized when the low density mode has been instructed; then the thermal head being shifted relative to print paper in the sub scanning direction by a distance substantially equal to the pitch; then all of the heating elements being energized when the high density mode has been instructed, or every other heating element, which have not been energized in a previous energizing cycle, being energized when the low density mode has been instructed.

Apparatus and method for printing using a thermal head

A structure of a thermal head of the type using an ink paper or a heat-sensitive paper is disclosed. The structure includes an array of units each comprising a single resistance body and a pair of electrode members which respectively correspond to a first and a second heat-generating portions positioned at both ends of the resistance body, the electrode members being adapted to energize the resistance body. At least one of the first and second heat-generating portions of the resistance body is divided into a plurality of heat-generating members, and so is done one of the electrode members which is associated with those heat-generating members.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Yutaka Mizoguchi