Patent ID: 7330201

Claim:
A thermal printer comprising: a donor transport system having a motorized system for advancing a donor web relative to a printhead, said donor web having patches of donor material including at least one colored donor material; a receiver transport system having a motorized system for advancing a receiver web relative to the printhead; said printhead being able to actuate heat and transfer donor material from the donor web to the receiver web; a first thermal sensor adapted to sense thermal energy indicative of the temperature of the printhead and to generate a primary thermal feedback signal representative of the temperature of the printhead; a controller for controlling the operation of the donor transport system, the receiver transport system, and the printhead so as to enable imagewise transfer of donor material onto the receiver web to form a sequence of at least two images said controller being operable to interpose at least one programmed delay between the printing of at least two of the images in the sequence; wherein said controller determines the length of each programmed delay by using the temperature of the thermal printhead and a time rate of cooling of the printhead in a manner that is adapted to provide a sufficient cooling time to prevent the printhead from reaching a maximum printhead temperature during printing of the sequence of images.