A method for marking at least one portion of a surface of an object, said surface being made of a material that is paper, cardboard or fabric, the method comprising the following steps: heating the surface of the material by means of a heat source to a temperature lower than a temperature at which the visual appearance of the material changes; marking the heated surface by means of a marking laser, so that the light beam of the laser raises the temperature on the surface of the material enough to change the visual appearance of said surface;

in which the marking laser is a laser with a light beam that belongs to the visible or ultraviolet spectrum.

A product design system includes a first transmitting section that uses a look-up table to convert second design image data for which image correction is completed into third design image data of a color space that is represented with a thermochromic material, and transmits the third design image data derived from the conversion to an external apparatus, and a second transmitting section that transmits a decorating request based on fourth design image data that is profile-transformed from the second design image data to a decorating apparatus.

A drawing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes, when performing drawing on a thermal recording medium that includes a light-transmitting member above a recording layer, obtaining information regarding the light-transmitting member, predicting an optical axis deviation of a laser beam in the recording layer from the information regarding the light-transmitting member, and calculating a correction amount from a result of the prediction of the optical axis deviation.

Examples described herein relate to a system consistent with the disclosure. For instance, the system may comprise a printing device including hardware to form an image on a print medium, a memory resource, and a controller to receive a print job to form the markings on the print medium, designate a pixel of the received print job to form a covert dot pattern on the markings, where the pixel corresponds to a first laser intensity level; and adjust a laser intensity of the printing device to a second laser intensity level based on the first laser intensity level of the designated pixel to form the covert dot pattern.

Systems and methods for printing data on a substrate including a color-changeable material are provided. One system includes a processing circuit and a device including an energy source. At least a portion of a printed publication is printed on the substrate using a commercial printing press based on fixed data. The device including the energy source is configured to add variable data to the substrate. The processing circuit is configured to receive the variable data and to control the energy source to change a color of the color-changeable material based on the variable data to provide at least a portion of the printed publication. The processing circuit is configured to control the energy source to change the color of the color-changeable material in-line with a flow of the substrate through one of a printing line, a finishing line, or a packaging line of the commercial printing press.

A decoloring apparatus includes a sheet conveying unit, a scanner, a decoloring unit, and a controller. The decoloring unit decolors the image on the sheet conveyed through the sheet conveying unit. The decoloring unit is positioned downstream of the scanner in a sheet conveying direction. A distance along the sheet conveying direction between the scanner and the decoloring unit is shorter than a length of a first predetermined sheet size and longer than a length of a second predetermined sheet size. A controller determines whether the sheet conveyed by the sheet conveying unit is the first predetermined sheet size or the second predetermined sheet size. The controller performs a mode limiting process if the sheet size is determined to be the first predetermined sheet size.

Systems and methods in which a material or materials (e.g., a viscous material) are printed or otherwise transferred onto an intermediate substrate at a printing unit(s). The intermediate substrate having an image of material printed thereon is subsequently transferred to a sample building unit, and the image of material is transferred from the intermediate substrate to a sample at the sample building unit. Optionally, the printing unit(s) includes a coating system that creates a uniform layer of the material on a donor substrate, and the material is transferred from the donor substrate onto the intermediate substrate at the printing unit(s). Each of the printing units may employ a variety of printing or other transfer technologies. The system may also include material curing, heating, sintering, ablating, material filling, imaging and cleaning units to aid in the overall process.

A label modification unit may receive a label modification input that indicates a label modification associated with content being written to a label or erased from the label. The label modification unit may identify an area of the label that is associated with the label modification according to the label modification input. The label modification unit may determine, based on a size of the area, a spot size of a light beam that is configured to be emitted by a laser printhead to modify the content within the area. The label modification unit may determine, based on the spot size and the content, an optical path configuration for the laser printhead. The label modification unit may operate the laser printhead according to the optical path configuration to write the content to the area or erase the content from the area.

A label modification unit may receive a label modification input associated with an image. The label modification unit may process, using an image filtering, the label modification input to convert the image to a bitmap for raster printing the image via a laser printhead. The label modification unit may determine, based on the bitmap, an array of power factors for a light beam that is configured to be emitted by a laser of the laser printhead and raster print the image. The label modification unit may control the laser of the laser printhead in association with raster printing the image on a rewriteable label according to the array of power factors.

A drawing system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a storage, a generator, and a drawing section. The storage stores a conversion table that describes a correspondence relationship between gradation values in a leuco color space and output setting values of light sources. The generator generates, on the basis of leuco image data described in the leuco color space and the conversion table, the output setting values corresponding to the leuco image data. The drawing section performs drawing on a recording medium on the basis of the output setting values generated by the generator, the recording medium including a plurality of recording layers, the plurality of recording layers each including a leuco dye and a photothermal conversion agent.