Thermal transfer printing device and method

Abstract

A thermal transfer printing device for printing photorealistic color images with dye-sublimation inks of different colors and two-gradation images such as character and bar code patterns with a monochrome thermal wax-transfer ink respectively in separated printing sections. The bar code pattern is printed in the widthwise direction of the code bars with heating energy smaller than that for printing the bar code pattern in the lengthwise direction of the bars, thus increasing the reproductivity in producing the bar code pattern. Deviations in specific resistance among heating elements of a thermal print head can be compensated by multiplying image data energy to be supplied to the heating elements by ratios of the specific resistance of the respective heating elements to the maximum resistance in the heating elements, thus producing high-quality images on the recording medium.