Systems and methods for thermal transfer printing

摘要

A system and method for printing a predetermined image onto a substrate includes steps or structure for obtaining pixel data which renders a portion of the predetermined image and relates to whether a colorant is to be deposited in a predetermined area comprising at least one subject pixel and at least one adjacent pixel; determining whether a colorant is specified for any of the predetermined area; and depositing an image-enhancing coating over the subject pixel on the substrate if the above determining step determines that a colorant is so specified, whereby a portion of the image-enhancing coating receiving area is successively determined "on-the-fly" using a minimal physical memory space without sacrificing the system performance. A second aspect of the disclosure involves an efficient method and structure for converting a pixel data relating to the deposition of the image-enhancing coating material format into a compact data format which is acceptable by a printer.