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 battery-powered printer includes a printing head that has a plurality of heat generating elements arranged along a direction orthogonal to a transport direction of a recording medium and is configured to print on the recording medium, a temperature sensor configured to measure a temperature within the printer, and a processor configured to determine whether the temperature measured by the temperature sensor is equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold, determine a constant printing speed at the time of printing under a condition where the temperature is equal to or lower than the predetermined threshold, and control the printing head and a transporting speed of the recording medium so as to cause each line of the print data to be printed on the recording medium at the constant printing speed.

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 image forming apparatus includes a heater, a temperature sensor, a power supply circuit, a main processor, and a sub-processor. The temperature sensor is configured to detect a temperature of the heater. The power supply circuit is configured to perform power supply to the heater. The main processor is configured to supply a heater control signal to the power supply circuit based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor to control the power supply circuit and adjust the temperature of the heater. The sub-processor (a) monitors whether or not an output from the main processor is made regularly, and (b) supplies, to the power supply circuit, the heater control signal for cutting off the power supply to the heater when determination is made that the output is not made.

Provided is a printing apparatus which includes a thermal head having a plurality of heat generation elements whose temperatures are controlled by applying a voltage and performing printing on a printing medium and a head drive circuit being supplied periodically with a control signal and print data to control application of a voltage to each of the plurality of heat generation elements. One period of the control signal includes first and second voltage application control periods which are separated from each other. The first voltage application control period is a period in which the printing is performed by controlling the application of a voltage, and the second voltage application control period is a period in which the printing is not performed and a temperature of the thermal head is adjusted by controlling the application of a voltage.

Thermal printheads need a power and/or a data cable to deliver energy to the thermal printhead to print. With a wireless thermal printhead, however, a printer can run without using a power or a data cable. By removing the cable, benefits include shrinking the printer size, increasing durability of the printer and making it easier to change a thermal printhead.

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 thermal printer with head elements enables accurately determining the state of deterioration of the head elements, and minimizing the amount of stored data. A printing device has a thermal head having multiple head elements; a voltage application circuit configured to apply a printing voltage and an inspection voltage to the head elements; a head controller configured to control the thermal head and the voltage application circuit; and data storage configured to store a conversion table relationally storing a divided voltage and a resistance of the head elements. At a specific timing, the head controller applies the inspection voltage to the head elements by the voltage application circuit, measures the divided voltage of the head elements, converts the measured divided voltage to resistance based on the conversion table, acquires deterioration information based on the converted resistance, and stores the deterioration information in the data storage.

A method for enhancing resolution of a radiation sensitive microcapsule-based printer includes generating multiple subpixels in a sub-scan direction. The method further includes mapping multiple grids onto a photosensitive medium, the multiple grids corresponding to the multiple subpixels. The method further includes determining an exposure energy required for each grid of the multiple grids. The method further includes allocating the exposure energy required for each grid into a first exposure level and a second exposure level. The method further includes exposing each grid of the photosensitive medium to the corresponding first exposure level and the corresponding second exposure level sequentially as the photosensitive medium passes through the radiation sensitive microcapsule-based printer in the sub-scan direction.

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.