Patent ID: 8405694

Claim:
A method of heating a thermal print unit of a dye sublimation printer, comprising: generating a shortest unit heating time, by dividing a predetermined time by a first color level difference between a highest color level and a lowest color level; determining a length of each of a plurality of first discrete times according to the shortest unit heating time and a second color level difference between the lowest color level and a target color level; and heating a thermal print unit to the target color level within the predetermined time, by heating the thermal print unit with the plurality of first discrete times and cooling the thermal print unit with a plurality of second discrete times, so that the thermal print unit prints data with the target color level, while the thermal print unit is to be heated to the target color level within the predetermined time; wherein the plurality of first discrete times are not all equal, and the plurality of second discrete times are not all equal; and wherein the predetermined time equals to a required time for heating the thermal print unit from the lowest color level to the highest color level.