Thermal transfer recording method and recording apparatus utilizing the same.

摘要

There is disclosed a thermal transfer printer for image recording by ink transfer from an ink sheet (14) onto a recording sheet (11), capable of stable sheet transportation and improvement in image quality. The printer has transport mechanisms (17,18) for the ink sheet and the recording sheet (12,16), a thermal head (13) for heating the ink sheet, and a controller. If a next recording operation is instructed at the end of a preceding recording operation, the controller starts the transportation of the sheets and at the same time activates the thermal head (13) with an energy smaller than in the ordinary image recording, thus effecting pre-heating of the thermal head, prior to the start of next recording operation.