A thermal printer includes: a plurality of heat elements that are to be heated by applying an electrical power; a printing controller that applies a first electrical power to heat elements not to be used for printing, the first electrical power depending on the number of heat elements not to be used for printing among the plurality of heat elements; and a thermal head that prints using the plurality of heat elements.

A thermal printer includes: a plurality of heat elements that are to be heated by applying an electrical power; a printing controller that applies a first electrical power to heat elements not to be used for printing, the first electrical power depending on the number of heat elements not to be used for printing among the plurality of heat elements; and a thermal head that prints using the plurality of heat elements.

A thermal printer includes heating elements each of which generates heat according to an amount of energy applied thereto, an energy applier that applies energy to each of the heating elements, a memory that stores a gradation table where energy values are set for gradation levels based on a relationship between reflectances of a printed image and amounts of energy applied to the heating elements, and a controller that transfers control data corresponding to gradation levels of image data to the energy applier based on the gradation table to control the amounts of energy to be applied by the energy applier to each of the heating elements.

A method includes: storing, in a memory, a test command defining an array of effector element activation states; at a controller connected with the memory, transmitting the test command to an interface configured to connect the controller with an installed effector assembly from a plurality of possible effector assembles including at least a first effector assembly and a second effector assembly, the installed effector assembly being one of (i) the first effector assembly having a first array of effector elements, or (ii) the second effector assembly having a second array of effector elements; at the controller, detecting whether effector elements of the installed effector assembly are activated according to the test command; and at the controller, identifying the installed effector assembly as either the first effector assembly or the second effector assembly based on the detection.

A thermal printer includes: a plurality of heat elements that are to be heated by applying an electrical power; a printing controller that applies a first electrical power to heat elements not to be used for printing, the first electrical power depending on the number of heat elements not to be used for printing among the plurality of heat elements; and a thermal head that prints using the plurality of heat elements.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a printer configured to print on a print medium. The printer includes a thermal head and a control unit. The thermal head has a plurality of heating elements that are arranged in a line. The control unit is configured to control thermal energy to be applied to the plurality of heating elements, in accordance with information based on image data. The information includes whether to apply a pulse of energizing current in each of a plurality of periods being preset during a scanning line time for one line. The plurality of periods is set in an order from a long period to a short period during the scanning line time.

A method includes: storing, in a memory, a test command defining an array of effector element activation states; at a controller connected with the memory, transmitting the test command to an interface configured to connect the controller with an installed effector assembly from a plurality of possible effector assembles including at least a first effector assembly and a second effector assembly, the installed effector assembly being one of (i) the first effector assembly having a first array of effector elements, or (ii) the second effector assembly having a second array of effector elements; at the controller, detecting whether effector elements of the installed effector assembly are activated according to the test command; and at the controller, identifying the installed effector assembly as either the first effector assembly or the second effector assembly based on the detection.

According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a reading unit, a detection unit, a determination unit, and a processing unit. The reading unit reads an image printed based on predetermined test image data by a thermal printer that performs thermal control according to a thermal history table. The detection unit detects a difference between the image read by the reading unit and a test image represented by the test image data. The determination unit determines a thermal history table for compensating for the difference detected by the detection unit. The processing unit performs a predetermined process for setting the thermal history table determined by the determination unit in the thermal printer.