Patent ID: 7052193

Claim:
A scratch card printer comprising: a conveying section which conveys a card; a first printing mechanism which has a thermal head; a printing control section which controls the thermal head of the first printing mechanism, causing the thermal head to perform thermal printing to print information on the card; a second printing mechanism which is located downstream of the first printing mechanism, in a direction of conveying the card by the conveying means, and which has a thermal head having less printing energy than the thermal head of the first printing mechanism; a thermal transfer control section which controls the thermal head of the second printing mechanism, causing the thermal head to transfer ink from a thermal transfer ribbon to the card, thereby to conceal the information printed on the card by the first printing mechanism a temperature detecting section which detects ambient temperature; and a storage section which stores the printing energy levels of the printing head and thermal head relative to the ambient temperature, wherein the printing control section finds, from the storage section, the printing energy of the printing head corresponding to the ambient temperature detected by the temperature detecting section and control the printing energy of the printing head, and the thermal transfer control section finds, from the storage section, the printing energy of the thermal head corresponding to the ambient temperature detected by the temperature detecting section and control the printing energy of the printing head.