Method and apparatus for recording an image on a multicolor thermal recording material

A method of recording an image onto a thermal recording material in which a plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers are laminated, said plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers having mutually different sensitivities and being adapted to develop mutually different hues of color, comprising the steps of:

• (a) causing a recording head to effect the scan recording of each of said plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers;
• (b) fixing said each of said plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers scan recorded by application of light thereto;
• and
• (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) to record an image onto said thermal recording material, wherein the application to said thermal recording material of light capable of fixing a color to be developed by an nth scan recording (n is an integer) is continued after the starting of an (n+1)th scan recording.

A method of recording an image onto a thermal recording material in which a plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers are laminated by imparting energy thereto in correspondence with a predetermined density value set on the basis of a level of an image signal, said plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers having mutually different sensitivities and being adapted to develop mutually different hues of color, comprising the steps of:

• (a) causing a recording head to effect the scan recording of each of said plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers;
• (b) fixing said each of said plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers scan recorded by application of light thereto;
• and
• (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) to record an image onto said thermal recording material, wherein maximum energy of the energy imparted to the color-development layer for which the scan recording has already been completed is imparted to a portion where an indicated density at least based on said image signal is 0.

A method of recording an image onto a thermal recording material in which a plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers are laminated by imparting energy thereto in correspondence with a predetermined density value set on the basis of a level of an image signal, said plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers having mutually different sensitivities and being adapted to develop mutually different hues of color, comprising the steps of:

• (a) causing a recording head to effect the scan recording of each of said plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers;
• (b) fixing said each of said plurality of thermosensitive color-development layers scan recorded by application of light thereto;
• and
• (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) to record an image onto said thermal recording material, wherein maximum energy for an (n 1)th scan recording (n is an integer) is imparted to a portion where an indicated density based on said image signal is 0, during an nth scan recording.

An image recording apparatus comprising:

• irradiating means for applying light to a thermal recording layer having a plurality of layers whose color development is suppressed as the light of different ultraviolet wavelength regions is applied to said plurality of layers, so as to expose said thermal recording material;
• control means for controlling an exposure by said irradiating means such that, with respect to a portion where a color other than black is to be developed, a color-development density of each of said plurality of color-development layers becomes lower than a maximum color-development density of said each of said plurality of color-development layers, and for controlling the exposure by said irradiating means such that, with respect to a portion where black is to be developed, the color-development density of said each of said plurality of color-development layers becomes higher than a maximum value of color-development density of a portion surrounding the portion where black is to be developed;
• and
• a heat source for heating said thermal recording material exposed, so as to effect heat development of said thermal recording material.

An image recording apparatus comprising:

• irradiating means for applying light to a thermal recording layer having a plurality of layers whose color development is suppressed as the light of different ultraviolet wavelength regions is applied to said plurality of layers, so as to expose said thermal recording material;
• control means for controlling an exposure by said irradiating means such that, with respect to a portion where an image other than a character is to be recorded, a color-development density of each of said plurality of color-development layers becomes lower than a maximum color-development density of said each of said plurality of color-development layers, and for controlling the exposure by said irradiating means such that, with respect to a portion where a character image is to be recorded by causing at least one of said plurality of color-development layers to undergo color development, the color-development density of said each of said plurality of color-development layers becomes higher than a maximum value of color-development density of a portion surrounding the portion where said character image is to be recorded;
• and
• a heat source for heating said thermal recording material exposed, so as to effect heat development of said thermal recording material.