Patent ID: 6175376
Filing Date: 2001-01-16
Classification: B41J,G06K

Abstract:
An apparatus for thermally printing on print media, comprising:a printhead having N number of spaced apart, parallel print lines, N being greater than one, and each of the print lines including a plurality of sequentially positioned printing elements of approximately similar construction selectively energizable to increase a temperature of a portion of the printhead; anda printhead controller operatively coupled to the printhead, the printhead controller receiving data corresponding to a monochrome image to be printed on the print media, the printhead controller selectively applying one of a plurality of selected heating signals to the printing elements in each of the print lines to thermally print each line of the monochrome image on the print media, wherein the heating signals for each line of the image provide one of a plurality of power levels to each of the N number of print lines.