Patent ID: 6497179
Filing Date: 2002-12-24
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
A printer (10) having a transparency film discrimination system, the discrimination system comprising:feed mechanism (18) for feeding a print medium (12) toward a print mechanism (20), the print medium (12) being one of a plurality of different types, each type having a print surface (14); illumination source (42) for providing light to impinge on the print surface (14); detector (48) for detecting one of reflected and transmitted light from the print surface (14) to provide a detection signal representing the print surface (14) so as to allow identification of transparency type of the print medium (12); and processor (28) for applying metric criteria to the detected signal to identify type of transparency of the print medium (12) and for providing control to the print mechanism (20) dependent on the identified transparency type so that damage to the printer (10) is avoided.