According to one embodiment, a thermal print head includes a heat sink; a head substrate placed on the heat sink and having a plurality of heat generating elements arranged in a primary scanning direction; a circuit board placed on the heat sink so as to be adjacent to the head substrate in an auxiliary scanning direction and provided with a connection circuit; and a control element electrically connected to the heat generating element via a first bonding wire and electrically connected to the connection circuit via a second bonding wire, in which at least one of the first bonding wire and the second bonding wire includes any of a copper wire, a copper alloy wire, and a wire mainly made of copper and coated with a metal different from copper.

According to one embodiment, a thermal print head includes a heat sink; a head substrate placed on the heat sink and having a plurality of heat generating elements arranged in a primary scanning direction; a circuit board placed on the heat sink so as to be adjacent to the head substrate in an auxiliary scanning direction and provided with a connection circuit; and a control element electrically connected to the heat generating element via a first bonding wire and electrically connected to the connection circuit via a second bonding wire, in which at least one of the first bonding wire and the second bonding wire includes any of a copper wire, a copper alloy wire, and a wire mainly made of copper and coated with a metal different from copper.

A printer having a printer communicator for receiving commands; a thermal line head that prints in line units on thermal roll paper; a multiple line buffer; and a printer controller that controls the thermal line head to print. When the printer communicator receives an image printing command instructing image printing, the printer controller stores the image data specified by the image printing command in the multiple line buffer. When the printer communicator receives a non-image data definition command, the printer controller prints an image on the thermal roll paper by the thermal line head based on the image data stored in the multiple line buffer.

A printer having a printer communicator for receiving commands; a thermal line head that prints in line units on thermal roll paper; a multiple line buffer; and a printer controller that controls the thermal line head to print. When the printer communicator receives an image printing command instructing image printing, the printer controller stores the image data specified by the image printing command in the multiple line buffer. When the printer communicator receives a non-image data definition command, the printer controller prints an image on the thermal roll paper by the thermal line head based on the image data stored in the multiple line buffer.

In accordance with an embodiment, an image forming apparatus comprises a thermal head including a plurality of heat generation elements and configured to form an image on a sheet using heat generated by the heat generation element; a health check section configured to diagnose conditions of the heat generation elements; and a control section configured to control the health check section to execute a health check processing when the thermal head is not executing a job of forming an image and diagnose conditions of remaining heat generation elements in a next health check processing when the health check processing is interrupted.

There are provided a thermal transfer printer and a method for producing a printed matter capable of suppressing deterioration in printing quality. A first energizing pulse is generated at the beginning of one line period. The first energizing pulse causes each heating element to perform offset heating. Second energizing pulses whose number corresponds to a tone level are generated in one line period. The second energizing pulses cause each heating element to perform heating. When the timings at which the first energizing pulse and the second energizing pulses are generated can be evenly distributed within one line period, the timings are evenly distributed within one line period. When the timings cannot be evenly distributed within one line period, the timings are distributed within one line period such that an unevenly distributed portion included in the timings is arranged in an initial period of one line period.

A printing system includes a controller and a thermal printing head including multiple driving elements and an integrated transmission control interface. The thermal printing head is coupled to the controller. The driving elements are configured to print. The integrated transmission control interface coupled to the controller and driving elements is configured to receive from the controller at least one of a compensation data, a printing data, a clock signal, a data signal, a latch signal or a start-heating signal, and send to driving elements the at least one of the compensation data, the printing data, the clock signal, the data signal, the latch signal or the start-heating signal.

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.

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.

A recording device includes a head including a plurality of nozzles discharging ink droplets and a head including a plurality of nozzles discharging ink droplets of a color identical to that of the ink droplets, a driving circuit configured to drive the former head at a drive voltage and drive the latter head by another drive voltage, an input unit configured to receive an input of selection information selected, based on comparison between a print image printed by the former head and a plurality of other print images G2 printed by the latter head, with the other drive voltage being changed individually, and a control unit configured to control the drive voltage and the other drive voltage, based on the selection information input from the input unit.