Patent ID: 7230635
Filing Date: 2007-06-12
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. A printer comprising: a recording paper conveying mechanism for conveying a long thermal recording paper in a sub-scanning direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the thermal recording paper fed from a recording paper roll formed of the thermal recording paper wound around a cylindrical core; a thermal recording head provided at a downstream side from the recording paper roll in the sub-scanning direction for forming an image on the thermal recording paper on line-by-line in a main-scanning direction parallel to a width direction of the thermal recording paper; a cutter provided at the downstream side from the thermal recording head for cutting a portion of the thermal recording paper on which the image is formed according to a size of the image; an image data reading unit for reading digital image data from a digital camera or a memory card; an image forming control unit for controlling driving of the thermal recording head with using an image data read from the image data reading unit; a conveyance control unit for controlling driving of the recording paper conveying mechanism with using image data read from the image data reading unit; and a cutting control unit for controlling driving of the cutter with using the image data read from the image data reading unit; and the image forming control unit making the thermal recording head to be preheated to a proper temperature just before forming an image on the thermal recording paper, while making the thermal recording head into contact with a predetermined region of the thermal recording paper; the cutting control unit driving the cutter for cutting a first portion of the thermal recording paper that is heated during preheating of the thermal recording head and also cutting a second portion of the thermal recording paper on which the image is formed after forming the image on the thermal recording paper, and discharging cut portions to outside; and wherein the image forming control unit controls the thermal recording head so as to print an arbitrary information in the first portion while the thermal recording head is preheated.