The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 06, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 06, 1996
Nobuhiro Inoue, Tokyo, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Kawasaki, JP;
Abstract
In a thermal printing apparatus, three consecutive image data items in the main scanning direction is sequentially extracted. When all the three image data items are at level 0 (indicating that no dot is printed) and at level 1 (indicating that a dot is printed), a printing density is determined to be 0 (indicating that no dot is printed) and 3 (indicating that a dot of the highest printing density is printed), respectively. When one of the three image data items is at level 1, the printing density is determined to be 1 (indicating that a dot of the lowest printing density is printed) when the printing density of the preceding printed pixel is any value other than 0. When one or two of the three image data items is or are at level 1, the printing density is determined to be 1 or 2 (indicating that a dot of an intermediate printing density is printed) according to the printing density of the preceding printed pixel. Thus, the printing apparatus is capable of printing image data without the degradation of the image quality, even when the image data whose resolution in the main scanning direction is higher than (e.g., three times as high as) that inherent to the apparatus is supplied.