A printer includes a thermal print head, a supply shaft, a winding shaft, a light emitting device, and a photodetector. The light emitting device and the photodetector are aligned along a line parallel to a line passing through rotational axes of the supply and winding shafts at a predetermined distance. The predetermined distance is greater than a radius of the supply shaft and a radius of the winding shaft. The predetermined distance is less than a radial distance from the rotational axis of the supply shaft to an outer surface of the ink ribbon on the supply shaft and a radial distance from the rotational axis of the winding shaft to an outer surface of the ink ribbon on the winding shaft when a length of the ribbon on the supply shaft is equal to a length of the ribbon on the winding shaft.

A print medium in which a plurality of color development layers that develop colors to obtain colored portions by being heated are formed at different positions in the thickness direction is conveyed in a first direction. A plurality of heat generation elements that heat the print medium are controlled so as to selectively cause the plurality of color development layers to develop the respective colors. Heating positions on the print medium are controlled such that, in at least one of the color development layers in the print medium, in a case where lines each including a plurality of pixels which are formed by the colored portions and arranged at a predetermined resolution in the first direction are arranged in a second direction, positions of the plurality of pixels are shifted between the lines in the first direction by a distance smaller than an interval corresponding to a resolution.

A print medium in which a plurality of color development layers that develop colors to obtain colored portions by being heated are formed at different positions in the thickness direction is conveyed in a first direction. A plurality of heat generation elements that heat the print medium are controlled so as to selectively cause the plurality of color development layers to develop the respective colors. Heating positions on the print medium are controlled such that, in at least one of the color development layers in the print medium, in a case where lines each including a plurality of pixels which are formed by the colored portions and arranged at a predetermined resolution in the first direction are arranged in a second direction, positions of the plurality of pixels are shifted between the lines in the first direction by a distance smaller than an interval corresponding to a resolution.

A printer includes a thermal print head, a supply shaft, a winding shaft, a light emitting device, and a photodetector. The light emitting device and the photodetector are aligned along a line parallel to a line passing through rotational axes of the supply and winding shafts at a predetermined distance. The predetermined distance is greater than a radius of the supply shaft and a radius of the winding shaft. The predetermined distance is less than a radial distance from the rotational axis of the supply shaft to an outer surface of the ink ribbon on the supply shaft and a radial distance from the rotational axis of the winding shaft to an outer surface of the ink ribbon on the winding shaft when a length of the ribbon on the supply shaft is equal to a length of the ribbon on the winding shaft.

A level change point detection section detects a level change point, at which an output level switches, in a first position detection signal Ens1 generated by an encoder or a second position detection signal obtained by increasing the resolution of the Ens1. Each time a predetermined number of level change points is detected, an energization timing determination section determines the timing, at which the predetermined number of level change points have been detected, to be an energization timing for the thermal head.

The present invention provides a thermal print head capable of better performing printing on a printing medium.

The thermal print head includes: a substrate (1), formed with single crystal semiconductor; a resistor layer (4), including a plurality of heating portions (41) arranged in a main scan direction; and a wiring layer (3), configuring a charging path to the plurality of heating portions. The substrate includes: a main surface (11), being a surface opposite to the resistor layer; and a convex portion (13), disposed as protruding from the main surface and extending in the main scan direction. The convex portion includes: an inclining surface (132), inclining relative to the main surface and extending in a linear manner when viewing from the main scan direction; and a curving surface (131), disposed, in a protruding direction of the convex portion, on a position farther away from the main surface than the inclining surface, and curving in a manner that protrudes toward the protruding direction. Each of the plurality of heating portions includes a heating curving portion (411) formed on a portion corresponding to the curving surface.

The present invention provides a thermal print head capable of better performing printing on a printing medium.

The thermal print head includes: a substrate (1), formed with single crystal semiconductor; a resistor layer (4), including a plurality of heating portions (41) arranged in a main scan direction; and a wiring layer (3), configuring a charging path to the plurality of heating portions. The substrate includes: a main surface (11), being a surface opposite to the resistor layer; and a convex portion (13), disposed as protruding from the main surface and extending in the main scan direction. The convex portion includes: an inclining surface (132), inclining relative to the main surface and extending in a linear manner when viewing from the main scan direction; and a curving surface (131), disposed, in a protruding direction of the convex portion, on a position farther away from the main surface than the inclining surface, and curving in a manner that protrudes toward the protruding direction. Each of the plurality of heating portions includes a heating curving portion (411) formed on a portion corresponding to the curving surface.

Example implementations relate to adjust sharpness parameters. In some examples, a printing device can include a processing resource and a memory resource storing non-transitory machine-readable instructions to cause the processing resource to receive print data comprising color channels corresponding to print pixels to be formed on a multi-layer thermally activated print medium, determine a characteristic of a corresponding layer of the multi-layer thermally activated print medium for color channels of the received print data, adjust sharpness parameters of the color channels based on the determined characteristic of the corresponding layer of the multi-layer thermally activated print medium, and cause a print head of the printing device to apply thermal energy to an area of the multi-layer thermally activated print medium including the print pixels using the adjusted sharpness parameters.

A printing system includes: a printing device including a thermal head, a supplier, a winder, and a ribbon transport mechanism; and a controller configured to: transport an ink ribbon in a first direction from the supplier to the winder and heat the ink ribbon to perform printing; rewind the ink ribbon subjected to the printing in a second direction opposite to the first direction; after again receiving a print command, rewind the ink ribbon in the second direction by a first length corresponding to a length required to reach a printable speed; after the rewindings, store a second length corresponding to a length of the ink ribbon subjected to the printing upstream of the thermal head in the first direction; and feed the ink ribbon in the first direction by the stored second length.

A thermal printer includes a thermal head, a temperature sensor, and a controller. The thermal head includes heat generation elements configured to generate heat to perform printing. The temperature sensor is disposed in the thermal printer. The controller is configured to alternately turns on and off the heat generation elements during an idle state of the thermal printer for a number of cycles with a predetermined on-time period in each cycle. The controller determines the number of cycles and the predetermined on-time period based on temperature data obtained by the temperature sensor, such that heat energy generated by the heat generation elements during each of the cycles in the idle state is lower than heat energy generated by the heat generation elements during printing of one line.