The present disclosure is a thermal transfer sheet including a substrate and a transfer layer, the transfer layer containing a luster pigment, wherein, when an image of the sheet is taken from a side on which the transfer layer is present, the image is analyzed, dark and light portions of the analyzed image are inverted, automatic thresholding is performed in order to determine a threshold value of a brightness distribution, binary representation is subsequently performed, and the number and the total area of the black portions and the total area of the white portions are calculated, the ratio of the total area of the black portions to the total area of the white portions is 0.03 to 0.5, and the black portions have an average area of 100 to 300 μm.sup.2.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a new polymer coating for low temperature plastics and plastic foams that allows for the application of disperse dyes in a sublimation process that preserves the original properties of the underlying plastic substrate. The composition includes an optically clear synthetic organic polymer base holding two layers, a first reflective layer supported by the low temperature plastic substrate that includes IR radiation reflecting additives, and a second layer supported by the first layer having light scattering particulate additives. The disperse dyes utilized in the invention may include additives to absorb IR radiation provided by an external IR source positioned above the disperse dyes causing the dyes to sublimate and diffuse quickly into the light scattering layer. The combination of these layers allows for diffusion of the disperse dye ink into the light scattering layer while protecting the low temperature plastic below.

The invention relates to a process for printing a substrate (7) containing curved surface sections by using an ink printing assembly with a movable print head (8) comprising an ink carrier (1) having an ink layer, the ink layer being irradiated regionally in such a way that heat bulges are formed in the ink layer which cause the splitting of ink droplets so that the ink printing assembly is working as nozzle-less droplet ejector for ejecting droplets of ink from the ink layer, where the distance between the print head (8) and the curved sections of the substrate (7) is adjusted by moving the print head relative to the substrate by providing the print head with three degrees of freedom in translation, allowing horizontal (Tx), vertical (Tg) and in depth (Tz) translations.

To provide a method for manufacturing a decorated product that enables to easily manufacture a highly designable decorated product; a decorating sheet that can be used in this method for manufacturing a decorating sheet; and a highly designable decorated product. A decorated product 400 is manufactured by bonding an adhesive layer 200 to an image layer 10 side of a decorating sheet 100 provided with an image layer 10 having a thermal transfer image 20 on a supporter 1, and thereafter integrating the decorating sheet 100 with an object to be decorated 300 on an adhesive layer 200 side of the decorating sheet 100 to which the adhesive layer 200 is bonded.

A heat transfer process on to a stainless steel cup with a dark surface involves a stainless steel dark surface treatment layer arranged on a base layer of the outer circular surface of the cup body. The stainless steel dark surface treatment layer is sequentially arranged as at least one wire screen printing layer, a resin layer, and a thermal transfer image layer. The is one or several screen printing layers on the dark rough surface to fill up the rough pits on the dark surface to form a smooth surface and then a thermal transfer resin coating is applied, followed by heat transfer printing. A colorful personalized product can thus be produced from the cup.

A device for laser-induced marking of an article having a marking surface comprising a non-flat portion to be marked, the device comprising: a first laser unit for emitting and scanning first laser light over a first transfer area; a first foil unit for providing a first laser transfer foil at the first transfer area; a carrier for providing the article at the first transfer area, the article having a marking surface comprising a non-flat surface area; a first hard adaptor that is transparent for the first laser light, the first hard adapter having a first contacting surface that is essentially a negative of the non-flat surface area of the marking surface; and a contacting unit for bringing the first laser transfer foil in contact with the marking surface by causing the first contacting surface to move one of the first laser transfer foil and the marking surface towards one another.

Provided are an intermediate transfer medium and the like with which a glossy image can be easily formed and which can be used also for a transparent transfer receiving article.

In an intermediate transfer medium comprising at least a substrate and a transfer part provided releasably on one face of the substrate, the transfer part has a layered structure comprising at least an image forming layer that is located on the outermost surface on the opposite side to the substrate and on which an image is to be formed, and a gloss layer that is located closer to the substrate side than the image forming layer, and the transfer part has a maximum transmittance in the wavelength region of 380 nm to 780 nm of 40% or less.

Disclosed herein is a method of sublimation printing, a heating system for sublimation printing and a printing device. The method of sublimation printing comprises generating an air flow through a print medium on which a printing substance is deposited and heating the air flow to a temperature at or above a sublimation temperature of the printing substance.

The invention relates to an inkless printing method. The invention also relates to an inkless printing device, in particular configured to perform at least a part of the method according to the invention. The invention furthermore relates to a substrate provided with at least one printed marking realised by applying the method according to the invention and/or the device according to the invention.

A method when expressing gradation for a color image including binarizing tone values of first image data to produce second image data including pixels each having colors with respective binarized tone values, classifying pixels of the first image data into a plurality of first pixel groups and specifying a pixel where a color centroid is positioned for each color in each first pixel group, classifying pixels of the second image data into second pixel groups PXG2 corresponding to the first pixel groups and calculating the number of light pixels for each color in each second pixel group, producing third image data from the second image data, information related to the color centroid, and information related to the number of light pixels, and producing fourth image data by changing the position of a light pixel with the position of a dark pixel in the third image data.