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 printer includes: a printing head including a plurality of resistors; a controller configured to drive the printing head by dividing the printing head into at least two areas; and an assisting circuit that assists power supply, wherein the controller controls to overlap time periods for driving two different areas, and the assisting circuit supplies an electric current to the printing head together with an electric current supplied from the power source during the overlapping period.

A head drive device includes a thermal head, a capacitor, a control circuit and a drive circuit. The thermal head has a first group of heat generators and a second group of heat generators having a smaller number of heat generators than the first group. The control circuit selects, based on printing data, whether to perform printing with use of the first group or to perform printing with use of the second group. The drive circuit supplies power of a power source and the power stored in the capacitor to the thermal head when the first group is used, and supplies the power of the power source to the thermal head when the second group is used. The control circuit performs printing with use the first or second group based on the storage state of the capacitor.

A thermal printer includes a thermal head, a drive data generation unit, a clock generation unit, and a drive data supply unit. The thermal head is configured such that a large number of heating elements divided into a plurality of blocks are mounted thereon, and is configured to input drive data for driving the large number of heating elements to the plurality of blocks in parallel in synchronization with a plurality of different first clock signals. The drive data generation unit is configured to generate a plurality of pieces of drive data for each of the plurality of blocks from print data and to output the plurality of pieces of drive data in synchronization with a plurality of second clock signals. The clock generation unit is configured to generate a plurality of clock signals whose phases are shifted from each other. The drive data supply unit is configured to take in the plurality of pieces of drive data, which are output from the drive data generation unit, in synchronization with the plurality of second clock signals and to supply the plurality of pieces of drive data to the thermal head in synchronization with the plurality of first clock signals.

A printing device comprises: a print head configured to print a plurality of print lines on a medium to be printed, the medium being conveyed in a conveying direction; and a processor configured to control the print head. The processor is configured to: control the print head to print each of the plurality of print lines by a number of printing times which is once or a plurality of times by time division according to print data for printing each of the plurality of print lines; and in printing of a first print line and a second print line to be printed after the first print line of the plurality of print lines by the print head, the second print line being adjacent to the first print line along the conveying direction, control the print head to perform, after printing the first print line before printing the second print line, complementary printing that complements missing print estimated to occur between the first print line and the second print line in a case where a number of the printing times in the first print line and a number of the printing times in the second print line are set to different values from each other, and a number of the printing times is set to two or more.

A printer printing an image on a print medium based on print data including print dot data for each of print lines. The printer includes a print head including heating elements arranged along a direction of the print lines, and a controller finding the number of print dots on each print line and determining a first or second control mode as a control mode of the heating elements for printing each print line based on the found number of print dots. In the first control mode, the heating elements are divided into first groups including two or more adjacent heating elements and are heated at a different timing. In the second control mode, the heating elements are divided into second groups including two or more heating elements with at least two thereof spaced apart and are heated at a different timing.

A printing device includes a thermal head and a head controller. The head controller acquires a number of heater elements to energize based on the line print data, and determines an energization time of one or more heater elements corresponding to the line print data according to a result of comparison between the number of heater elements to energize and a first threshold, wherein in a case where a width of an ink ribbon heated by the energization is equal to or wider than a second threshold, the first threshold being set to be a value that is greater than a value that is set for the first threshold when the width of the ink ribbon heated by the energization is narrower than the second threshold.

A printing device includes:

a thermal head including heater elements arrayed into a line along an array direction intersecting a conveying direction of a printing medium; and

controller that causes the thermal head to print onto the printing medium based on multiple line print data, each of the multiple line print data being data into which print data is divided along the array direction.

The controller performs either of a first energization control to energize the heater elements in one line cycle for printing based on a single line print data among the multiple line print data and a second energization control to energize the heater elements so that a non-energization period in which the heater elements are not energized is included in the one line cycle, depending on a temperature of the thermal head.

An image forming apparatus includes: a thermal head including a plurality of heating elements; and a controller configured to execute a first one-line printing process to perform printing for one line. The first one-line printing process includes: dividing selected R heating elements into M blocks consisting of a 1-st block to an M-th block such that the M blocks include at least one high current block consisting of p heating elements and at least one low current block consisting of q heating elements; and energizing the M blocks at different timings. In a case where the 1-st block is the high current block, at least one block of the M blocks excluding the M-th block is the low current block. In a case where the 1-st block is the low current block, at least one block of the M blocks excluding the M-th block is the high current block.

A printing device conveys an ink ribbon and a printing medium in a sub-scanning direction. In the ink ribbon, a base layer, a first ink layer, and a second ink layer are overlaid in this order. A processor of the printing device supplies a first energy to a first heating element to heat the ink ribbon and supplies a second energy to a second heating element to heat the ink ribbon. The second energy is different from the first energy. The first heating element is one of a plurality of heating elements in a thermal head. The second heating element is different from the first heating element. The processor transfers both the first ink and the second ink onto the printing medium from the ink ribbon by supplying the first energy. The processor transfers the second ink onto the printing medium from the ink ribbon by supplying the second energy.