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.

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 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.

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 apparatus for determining the resistance of a printing element of a print head, the apparatus comprising: a print head comprising a plurality of individually controllable printing elements connected in parallel, and a capacitor connected in parallel with the printing elements; a test voltage supply arranged to supply a test voltage to the print head; a current monitor arranged to measure the current supplied to one of the printing elements when the said one of the printing elements is connected to the test voltage supply; and a controller arranged to determine the resistance of the said one of the printing elements based upon the measured current.

A printing apparatus includes a thermal head in which a plurality of heating elements is arranged in a main scanning direction, a moving mechanism configured to relatively move a print medium with respect to the thermal head in a sub-scanning direction crossing the main scanning direction, a controller configured to control the thermal head and the moving mechanism, and a storage unit configured to store first print data in which pixels are arranged in the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction, the pixels including print pixels indicating pixels with which corresponding dots are formed on the print medium by heat generated by the heating elements and non-print pixels with which no dot is formed on the print medium, the first print data being for printing a first print image represented by the print pixels. The controller executes generation processing and control processing.

A heating control section for controlling a voltage applying section and a moving section for reciprocate a carriage on which the first electrode unit is mounted executes heating control for heating a medium while moving the first electrode unit in a scanning direction in at least one of an outgoing path in which the first electrode unit moves in one direction of the scanning direction and a return path in which the first electrode unit moves in the opposite direction. In the heating control, when the first electrode unit is positioned at a first point overlapping with one end section of the medium, the heating control section sets the electric field strength of the first electrode unit to a first electric field strength, when that is positioned at a second point overlapping with center portion of the medium, the second electric field strength is set to be stronger than the first electric field strength, and the movement speed of the first electrode unit at the first point is slower than the movement speed at the second point.

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 printer driven by power of a battery, the printer including a thermal head including a plurality of heating elements arranged along a direction perpendicular to a conveying direction, a drive unit to supply power to the thermal head to drive the thermal head, and a processor to control driving and perform printing on the recording medium according to printing data, in which the processor calculates, based on a state of its own printer, a printing cycle related to printing of each line for the line configuring the printing data and an energization time for supplying power to the thermal head within the printing cycle, adjusts the energization time according to a characteristic difference between an internal resistance of the reference battery and an internal resistance of the battery, and prints for one line by supplying power to the drive unit during the energization time after adjustment.

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.