A printing system includes a printing device including a thermal head that prints print content on a print medium; and an information processing apparatus that controls the printing device. The information processing apparatus comprises a processor configured to detect, from print image data from a server, a position of a control target portion including a specific portion in a print image corresponding to the print image data. The processor is configured to generate printing control information for printing the control target portion. The processor is configured to transmit the print image data, the position of the control target portion, and the printing control information to the printing device. The printing device executes different printing controls for the control target portion and a portion other than the control target portion based on the print image data, the position of the control target portion, and the printing control information.

A printer includes a printer head configured to operate in a normal mode for printing print data on a medium with at least one of a designated size or a designated thickness of a character, and a size change mode or a thickness change mode for printing the print data on the medium with a size or thickness of the character being greater than the designated size or the designated thickness, respectively. The printer also includes a sensor configured to detect a printing density of a printing pattern. The printer also includes a processor configured to acquire print data, print the printing pattern, the printing pattern being set in advance, and set an operation mode of the printer head to one of the size change mode or the thickness change mode.

A printer includes a power supply section, a first communication section configured to make wired communication with a first smart device having a battery and supply power from the power supply section to the first smart device, a printing section that performs printing, and a control section, and the control section acquires temperature information, acquires remaining amount information of the battery from the first smart device using the first communication section, dynamically changes a threshold value based on the acquired temperature information in a range less than the maximum value of the remaining amount information, executes a first mode in which power is supplied from the power supply section to the first smart device via the first communication section when the remaining amount information is less than the threshold value, and executes a second mode in which power is not supplied from the power supply section to the first smart device via the first communication section for a predetermined period when the remaining amount information is equal to or more than the threshold value.

In some examples, luminance-biased sharpening for thermal media printing may include converting an input image to a grayscale luminance representation. For each pixel of a plurality of specified pixels of the converted input image, a sharpening lightness value may be determined. Further, a ratio of the sharpening lightness value to a corresponding original lightness value may be determined. A resulting sharpened pixel may be determined by applying a corresponding value of the determined ratio to each of the specified pixels. A dark correction factor may be applied to the resulting sharpened pixels that are darkened and a light correction factor may be applied to the resulting sharpened pixels that are lightened. Based on application of the dark correction factor and the light correction factor, a sharpened output image corresponding to the input image may be generated.

A method for printing includes analyzing print quality requirements for a printing area; adjusting settings for heater elements (e.g., energy and/or firing durations) of strobe lines based on the requirements analysis; and providing a plurality of individual strobe signals to the strobe lines. The strobe signals can be transmitted simultaneously, for example with a field-programmable gate array. Analyzing print quality requirements can include separating the printing area into one or more areas of interest, such as rows and/or columns. For each area of interest individual print quality settings (e.g., darkness, contrast, and/or media sensitivity) may be selected.

A print data editing device includes a controller configured to performs acquiring print data, and converting the print data. The converting includes determining, as a conversion sub-dot, one or more of sub-dots included in a sub-line for each of all sub-lines constituting one line within printing areas in an image represented by the print data, and editing the print data such that the print data indicates OFF for the one or more sub-dots determined as the conversion sub-dot. Each sub-line is constituted by the sub-dots. The sub-dot is a printing unit obtained by dividing a dot into M parts in a sub-scanning direction, where M is an integer of two or greater. The sub-dot for which the print data indicates ON is a printing area. The sub-dot for which the print data indicates OFF is a non-printing area. An area outside a printing region is also the non-printing area.

A print data editing device performs editing print data such that when dots constituting an input image represented by the print data are compared by units of columns before and after performing the editing, a coincidence is maximized when an image of each column in the input image after the editing is the same position as an image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing or is shifted by a corresponding shift amount relative to the image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing and an editing condition is met. The editing condition includes that an absolute value of at least one shift amount is one dot or greater, an absolute difference value for any two neighboring columns is one dot or less, and at least one absolute difference value for all possible combinations of two columns is less than one dot.

A print data editing device is configured to perform: editing print data such that when dots constituting an input image represented by the print data are compared by units of columns before and after the editing, a coincidence is maximized when an image of each column in the input image after the editing is the same position as an image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing or is shifted by a corresponding shift amount in a sub-scanning direction relative to the image of the corresponding column in the input image before the editing. An absolute value of at least one of shift amounts for columns in the input image after the editing is one dot or greater. An absolute difference value for any two neighboring columns in a main scanning direction in the input image after the editing is one dot or less.

Provided is a technique for controlling shift of an operation mode from a normal mode to a sleep mode. A printer according to one embodiment includes a print head, a cutter, a detection unit, and a mode control unit. The print head prints an image based on print data on a recording medium. The cutter cuts the recording medium based on a cut command. The detection unit detects that a duration time of an idle state in a first mode exceeds a predetermined time. The mode control unit changes, in response to the detection unit detecting that the duration time of the idle state exceeds the predetermined time, control of shifting an operation mode from the first mode to a second mode in which consumed power is lower than that of the first mode, in accordance with an event related to shift to the idle state.

Systems, methods, and a printer apparatus using network-based communication over wireless networks, and provides for electronic response from the printer relating to order confirmation and fulfillment at the recipient printer, in communication to an order management coordinator or server. The printer provides an order output including at least one symbol representing an order, including order information. The printer is operable to broadcast a wireless communication signal for proximity marketing and order delivery coordination.