JPH0267147A - Image recording apparatus using thermal transfer ink sheet - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a transmission type print using the same ink sheet as a reflecting type print by superposing the recording due to a thermal transfer ink sheet on the same region of a recording medium when the recording medium is one requiring high density. CONSTITUTION:A YMC signal wherein the gradation correction for the second print is performed is sent to a thermal head 28, and recording paper 32 and an ink sheet 30 are driven by a printer driving part 34 and set so as to again transfer ink to the part, where an image is formed by the first printing, in a superposed state. The YMC signal is successively applied to the thermal head 28 in the same way as the first printing to perform the second color printing so as to superpose the same on the first printing. By this operation, printing is performed to a transparent film becoming the manuscript projected by an overhead projector.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus using a thermal transfer ink sheet, and particularly to an image recording apparatus capable of obtaining transmission type prints with appropriate density.

An image recording apparatus has been proposed that receives a video signal representing a color image and records the color image on recording paper using ink sheets of three colors. This device receives a video signal representing, for example, a still image, separates it into three primary color components, and applies each of the video signals separated into one color to a thermal head.

On the other hand, an ink sheet for printing is prepared by applying sublimation ink of three colors to three different areas. Video signals of each color component are sequentially applied to the thermal head, and the ink portions of the ink sheet corresponding to these signals are heated, thereby sublimation-transferring the ink on the ink sheet onto the recording paper. A color image is formed by sequentially applying video signals of three color components and sequentially transferring the three color inks of the ink sheet onto the same area of the recording paper in a superimposed manner.

Such devices are typically used to obtain reflective prints. That is, an image is formed by transferring ink onto ordinary recording paper, and this image is visually observed.

On the other hand, there are cases where it is required to obtain a print on a transparent film, that is, a transmission type print, as a document to be projected by an overhead projector (OHP). However, since transmissive printing requires a density different from that of reflective printing, if it is performed under the same conditions as single reflective printing, the density will be insufficient and it will not be possible to obtain an appropriate transmissive print.

Therefore, when obtaining a transparent print, print using a high-density ink sheet for transparent printing.
A high-density print is obtained.

In this way, using high-density ink sheets in addition to regular ink sheets, and using these separately requires a lot of effort such as supplying ink sheets and replacing them, and the mechanism of the device is also complicated. .

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording device using a thermal transfer ink sheet, which eliminates the drawbacks of the prior art and allows transmission prints to be obtained using the same ink sheet used for reflection prints. With the goal.

According to the present invention, an image recording device that receives a video signal representing a color image and records the color image represented by the video signal on a recording medium using a thermal transfer ink sheet stores the input video signal. a storage means, a color component signal selection means for reading out the video signal stored in the storage means for each color component, and a heating means for heating the thermal transfer ink sheet according to the color component signal selected by the color component signal selection means; It has a storage means, a color component signal selection means, and a control means for controlling the heating means, and if the recording medium requires high density, the heating can be performed by reading out the video signal from the storage means multiple times. In this method, the thermal transfer ink sheet is heated multiple times by the means, and recording by the thermal transfer ink sheet is superimposed on the same area of the recording medium.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Next, embodiments of an image recording apparatus using a thermal transfer ink sheet according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an image recording apparatus according to the present invention.9 This apparatus is an NTSC system to which an NTSC signal is input.
It has an input terminal 10 and an RGB input terminal 12 into which RGB signals are input. An input from the NTSC input terminal 10 is connected to a decoder 14. Decoder 14 is NT
Create RGB signals from SC signals. The output of the decoder 14 and the input from the RGB input terminal 12 are connected to the AD converter 1.
Connected to B. The AD converter 16 converts the input color-separated video signal into a digital signal. The output of AD converter IB is connected to frame memory 18.

The frame memory 18 is composed of a RAM, etc., and stores input color-separated video signals and reads out these signals according to control signals from the control unit 40.The output of the frame memory 18 is connected to the line memory 22. There is.

The line memory 22 stores the input video signal for one line and outputs it. The output of the line memory 22 is connected to the gradation control section 24.

The gradation control section 24 includes a gradation control lookup table 2
6 and read out from the gradation control lookup table 2B,
The 0 gradation control unit 24 that converts any of the input RGB signals into YMC signals for printing also controls the control unit 40 in response to a gradation correction instruction input from the input operation unit 36 by the operator. The output of the 0 gradation control unit 24, which reads lookup table data from the gradation control lookup table 28 and corrects the gradation of the video signal according to the control signal sent from the thermal head 28, is connected to the thermal head 28. There is.

As shown in FIG. 2, the printing mechanism unit includes a recording paper 32 on which an image is recorded and an ink sheet 30 for transferring ink to the recording paper 32, which are brought into contact with each other by a platen drum 50L, and a thermal head 28 is placed on the ink sheet 30 side. It is located. The recording paper 32 and the ink sheet 30 are each driven by the printer drive unit 34 shown in FIG. 1 so as to be moved in the directions of the arrows. As shown in FIG. 3, the ink sheet 30 is made by adhering sublimable ink 30b to a base 30a such as a polyester film, and when selected signal electrodes of the thermal head 28 are energized and heated, The ink 30b attached to the base 30a is transferred onto the recording paper 32. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the ink sheet 30 has areas Y and M on which three types of ink, yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C), which are the three primary colors for printing, are adhered. , C are formed in sequence.

If the ink sheet 30 is stored in a cassette, for example, it can be easily handled.

Returning to FIG. 1, the printer drive section 34 controls the recording paper 3 loaded in the printing mechanism in response to a control signal from the control section 40.
2 and the ink sheet 30 are driven.

The output of frame memory 18 is also connected to OA converter 42 . [The lA converter 42 is connected to the frame memory 1
Converts the RGB video signal output from 8 into an analog signal. The output of the OA converter 42 is connected to an encoder 44. The encoder 44 converts the input RGB signal into an NTSC signal and outputs it to the CRT 4B.

The image printed by this device is displayed on the CRT 4B.

The control unit 40 is a control unit that controls each functional unit of the present device, and is advantageously configured by a microprocessor.

Next, the operation when performing transparent printing with this device is as follows.
This will be explained with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

The ink sheet 30 is loaded into the printer, and the recording paper 32 is also set. When an NTSC video signal representing an image to be printed is input from the NTSC input terminal IO, the video signal is input to the decoder 14, and the decoder 1
4, RGB signals are created.

The RGB signals are sent from the decoder 14 to the AD converter 16, where they are AD converted. In addition, from RGB input terminal 12
When GB signals are input, the input RGB signals are sent as they are to the AD converter 16 and are AD converted.

The AD-converted RGB signals are sent to the frame memory 18, and RGB signals for l frames are stored (102).
, RGB signals are sequentially read out from the frame memory 18 according to a control signal sent from the control unit 40 (104).
, are once stored in the line memory 24 and then sent to the gradation control section 24. At this time, the control unit 40 determines whether or not the signal is read out from the frame memory for the first time (10B).

In the case of the first reading, the RGB signal data input to the gradation control section 24 is converted into YMC signal data using the lookup table read from the gradation control lookup table 28. At the same time, gradation correction for the first printing is performed (108).
The gradation correction for the first printing may be the same as the normal gradation correction for reflective printing.The signal after the 0 gradation correction is sent to the thermal head 28.

The recording paper 32 and the ink sheet 30 are connected to the printer drive unit 3.
4, and the first three-color printing is performed by YMC signals that are sequentially applied to the thermal head 28 (110).

That is, first, in response to the yellow signal input to the electrode of the thermal head 28, transfer is performed using the yellow area Y of the ink sheet 30.

Next, by rotating the platen drum 50, the recording paper 32 is set so that the ink is transferred again onto the area where the yellow image is formed.

A video signal corresponding to the magenta (M) component is read out from the frame memory in response to a control signal from the control unit 40,
Similarly to the above, it is sent to the gradation control section 24 and subjected to gradation correction,
It is sent to the thermal head drive section 60. At this time, the ink sheet 30 moves so that the next magenta area M comes into contact with the recording paper 32, so that a magenta image is formed by the magenta ink superimposed on the yellow ink image.

Further, in the same manner, the recording paper 32 is set so that the ink is transferred again so as to overlap the area where the image is formed with yellow and magenta ink. At this time, the cyan image signal is input to the electrode of the thermal head 28, and the ink sheet 30 moves so that the next cyan area C comes into contact with the recording paper 32, so that the image based on the cyan signal is changed to the cyan ink. Formed in a superimposed manner.

In this way, the video signals of yellow, magenta, and cyan are input to the electrodes of the thermal head 28, and the ink of each color of yellow Y, magenta M, and cyan C on the ink sheet 30 is applied to the same portion of the recording paper 32. are superimposed to form a color image.

After the color image is formed in this way, a control signal is sent from the control unit 40 to the frame memory 18, and the RGB signals are sequentially read out from the frame memory 18 again (104).
, are once stored in the line memory 24 and then sent to the gradation control section 24. At this time as well, the control unit 40 determines whether or not the signal is read out from the frame memory 18 for the first time (10B).Since this is the second time, the control unit 40 performs tone correction for the second time. A command u4@ is output to the gradation control unit 24 to indicate that the process is to be performed. As a result, the RGB signal data input to the 1st gradation control section 24 is converted into YMC signal data using the lookup table read from the gradation control lookup table 26, and the 2nd
Tone correction for the second printing is performed (112),
Note that the gradation correction for the second printing may not be different from the gradation correction for the first printing, but may be the same gradation correction as the first printing.

The YMC signals subjected to gradation correction for the second printing are sent to the thermal head 28. The recording paper 32 and the ink sheet 30 are driven by the printer drive unit 34 and set so that the ink is transferred again, superimposing on the area where the image was formed in the first print, similar to the first print described above. Then, YMC signals are sequentially applied to the thermal head 28 to perform a second color print superimposed on the first print (114).

This operation results in a document to be projected by an overhead projector. Printing is done on transparent film. This print is formed by printing twice on the same area of the transparent film with the ink sheet 30, so a higher density image is formed compared to a reflective print made by printing once.
Prints with a density suitable for HP originals can be obtained.

When obtaining a normal reflective print, the first gradation correction in step 108 and the three-color sequential correction in step 110 are performed without determining whether or not this is the first printing in step 106 of FIG. By printing, color printing only needs to be done once, therefore,
According to this apparatus, it is possible to obtain both normal reflection-type prints and transmission-type prints that require high density.

In addition, if the second gradation correction described above is the same as the first φ, there is no need to create a different signal for transmissive printing than for reflective printing, and the printing operation is performed twice. Since only the following steps are required, the configuration of the device can be further simplified.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by repeating three-color sequential printing using the ink sheet 30 twice, a high-density transmission type print is obtained.

On the other hand, a reflective print is formed by sequentially printing three colors at one time. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a transmission type print using one ordinary reflection type ink sheet without preparing a high concentration ink sheet for transmission type printing, and the configuration of the apparatus is also simple.

In the above embodiment, sequential printing of three colors is repeated twice to obtain a transmissive print, but depending on the required density, sequential printing of three colors may be repeated three or more times. .

Effects According to the present invention, a transmission type print is obtained by performing printing multiple times using an ink sheet for reflection type printing.

Therefore, since it is not necessary to prepare a special ink sheet even when obtaining a transmission type print, a transmission type print can also be obtained with an apparatus using an ink sheet for reflection type printing.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image recording apparatus using a thermal transfer ink sheet according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the printing mechanism of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a diagram of an ink sheet used in the apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation when performing transmission printing using the apparatus of FIG. 1. 18°22°24°2B. 28. 30゜32゜36゜ part, explanation of the number, frame memory, line memory, gradation control section, lookup table 90 for gradation control, thermal head, ink sheet, recording paper, input operation section

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An image recording device that receives a video signal representing a color image and records the color image represented by the video signal on a recording medium using a thermal transfer ink sheet, the device comprising: storage means for storing a video signal stored in the storage means; color component signal selection means for reading out the video signal stored in the storage means for each color component; a heating means for heating a thermal transfer ink sheet; and a control means for controlling the storage means, the color component signal selection means, and the heating means, and when the recording medium requires high density, the Heating the thermal transfer ink sheet by the heating device multiple times by reading out the video signal from the storage device multiple times, and superimposing recording by the thermal transfer ink sheet on the same area of the recording medium. An image recording device using a thermal transfer ink sheet characterized by: