A thermal printer includes heating elements that generate heat according to amounts of applied energy, an energy applier that applies energy to the heating elements, a memory that stores a gradation table where energy levels to be applied to the heating elements are set for gradation levels based on a relationship between dot area ratios of an image and the amounts of energy applied to the heating elements, and a controller that transfers control data multiple times to the energy applier based on the gradation table to control the amounts of energy to be applied by the energy applier to the heating elements, each of the control data corresponding to different amounts of energy.

A printer in one example includes a thermal printhead with resistive heating elements. A motor is provided in the printer for conveying paper to the thermal printhead. A power supply is provided to supply power to the thermal printhead and the motor. A processor is configured to cause the supply of power to the motor to be paused after the supply of power to the thermal printhead exceeds a power threshold value and then to resume the supply of power to the motor after a predetermined period of time elapses after the pause of the supply of power to the motor.

According to an embodiment, a printer includes a thermal head with a plurality of heaters. A memory device stores utilization information indicating a status or cumulative usage amount of the thermal head. A processor is configured to acquire a measured resistance value for each of the heaters in the plurality of heaters and detect whether the thermal head has been changed since a previous use based on differences in the measured resistance values from reference resistance values. If it is detected that the thermal head has been changed, the processor updates the utilization information in the memory device to indicate the thermal head has been replaced.

According to an embodiment, a printer includes a thermal head with a plurality of heaters. A memory device stores utilization information indicating a status or cumulative usage amount of the thermal head. A processor is configured to acquire a measured resistance value for each of the heaters in the plurality of heaters and detect whether the thermal head has been changed since a previous use based on differences in the measured resistance values from reference resistance values. If it is detected that the thermal head has been changed, the processor updates the utilization information in the memory device to indicate the thermal head has been replaced.

An apparatus includes a generation unit and a multiplexing unit. The generation unit generates image data for recording by a forming apparatus that forms an image on a forming member using a print head that applies energy to the member. The multiplexing unit performs multiplexing processing to generate recording data in which predetermined information to be recognized by a reading apparatus as information different from an image to be recorded on the member is embedded in the image data.

An apparatus includes a generation unit and a multiplexing unit. The generation unit generates image data for recording by a forming apparatus that forms an image on a forming member using a print head that applies energy to the member. The multiplexing unit performs multiplexing processing to generate recording data in which predetermined information to be recognized by a reading apparatus as information different from an image to be recorded on the member is embedded in the image data.

An image forming apparatus comprising a thermal printhead and a controller. The thermal printhead has heating elements. The controller is to receive an indicated print mode corresponding to a type of thermal medium to be used, determine a power profile based on the indicated print mode, and control power to be delivered to the thermal printhead based on the determined power profile.

An image forming apparatus comprising a thermal printhead and a controller. The thermal printhead has heating elements. The controller is to receive an indicated print mode corresponding to a type of thermal medium to be used, determine a power profile based on the indicated print mode, and control power to be delivered to the thermal printhead based on the determined power profile.

Example implementations relate to adjust sharpness parameters. In some examples, a printing device can include a processing resource and a memory resource storing non-transitory machine-readable instructions to cause the processing resource to receive print data comprising color channels corresponding to print pixels to be formed on a multi-layer thermally activated print medium, determine a characteristic of a corresponding layer of the multi-layer thermally activated print medium for color channels of the received print data, adjust sharpness parameters of the color channels based on the determined characteristic of the corresponding layer of the multi-layer thermally activated print medium, and cause a print head of the printing device to apply thermal energy to an area of the multi-layer thermally activated print medium including the print pixels using the adjusted sharpness parameters.

In one example in accordance with the present disclosure, a printing device is described. The printing device includes a single thermal printhead that includes an array of heating elements. The array of heating elements are selectively powered to form content on both sides of thermal media passing thereby. Different sides of the thermal media have thermal dye layers with different activation sensitivities. The printing device also includes a media transport system to move the thermal media by the single thermal printhead. A controller of the printing device generates printed content on both sides of the thermal media in a single pass by powering the single thermal printhead based on both content to be formed on a first side and content to be formed on a second side.