| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thermal transfer printer which can accurately grasp the residual amount of an ink ribbon and can accurately find the top of an unused area, without being accompanied by a cost increase of the ink ribbon. SOLUTION: In the thermal transfer printer, before a thermal head 10 transfers the ink composition in a yellow area 31 to a recording sheet, the thermal head 10 is pre-heated up to the transfer temperature, and the ink composition of black which constitutes a mark pattern 35 is sublimated at the time of the pre-heating the thermal head to record given used information 41 on the mark pattern 35. When an optical sensor 11 reads the used information 41, after the power is on, the ink ribbon drive mechanism is driven till the optical sensor 11 detects the mark pattern 35 in the rear side without the used information 41 recorded to find the top of the unused area of the ink ribbon 5. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI
|
