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:
Dec. 17, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 13, 2001
Nobuo Katsuma, Saitama, JP;
Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., Kanagawa, JP;
Abstract
A thermal printer has a thermal head including plural heating elements. The heating elements are arranged in an array in a main scan direction, are driven according to image data, for recording an image to thermosensitive recording paper moved in a sub scan direction. The recording paper has a size smaller in the main scan direction than the thermal head. The thermal printer includes two arrays of photo receptor elements for detecting two lateral edges of the recording paper, to determine effective heating elements in contact with the recording paper among the heating elements. A data correcting unit effects a correcting process to part of the image data for heating elements of a first group included in the effective heating elements. The first group contacts each of the two lateral edges and a near portion near to the lateral edge with reference to the main scan direction in the recording paper.