LASER DYE THERMAL TRANSFER PRINTING

摘要

PCT No. PCT/GB94/01986 Sec. 371 Date Jun. 10, 1996 Sec. 102(e) Date Jun. 10, 1996 PCT Filed Sep. 12, 1994 PCT Pub. No. WO95/07514 PCT Pub. Date Mar. 16, 1995A scanning laser beam heats selected regions of a dye donor ribbon to transfer dye to a receiver sheet to form an image therein. The beam scan rate and delay time between the start of successive pulses is set so that adjacent heated pixel regions overlap and so that a significant amount of residual heat from a first printed pixel is still present when heat is applied to the next adjacent pixel. The use of this residual heat improves the printing efficiency. An elliptical beam may have its major axis in the scan direction to facilitate overlap. Printing may be effected to a non-square grid with more information, or a repetition of information, a set number of times in the scan direction. The power applied to a pixel may be adjusted depending on the darkness of previous adjacent printed pixels.