Thermal transfer recorder with ink sheet and recording medium conveyed according to recording mode

A thermal transfer recording apparatus for transferring an ink of an ink sheet onto a recording medium to record an image on said recording medium, said apparatus comprising:

• a recording medium mounting section for mounting said recording medium;
• an ink sheet mounting section for mounting said ink sheet, said ink sheet mounting section accepting a multi-print ink sheet containing said ink in an amount sufficient to record plural times;
• recording medium conveying means for conveying said recording medium in a sub-scan direction;
• ink sheet conveying means for conveying said ink sheet, said ink sheet conveying means conveying said ink sheet in a direction different from a conveyance direction of said recording medium at a recording area during recording;
• a thermal head having a plurality of heat generating elements disposed along a recordable maximum width of said recording medium, said head being mounted on said recording medium mounting section to selectively transfer said ink from said ink sheet to said recording medium so as to record a line of an image according to recording information across said recording medium perpendicular to said sub-scan direction;
• discriminating means for discriminating a value of a recording mode of the image to be recorded;
• first control means for controlling a ratio of conveyance amount of said ink sheet to a conveyance amount of said recording medium in accordance with the recording mode discriminated by said discriminating means so as to maintain constant a recording density of the recorded line of the image;
• and
• second control means for controlling said thermal head to perform repeatedly a recording based on a same recording information a number of times which varies in accordance with the recording mode discriminated by said discriminating means,
• wherein said number of times is a first number of times in a predetermined recording mode and a second number of times, different from said first number of times, in another recording mode different from said predetermined recording mode, and where in each said recording mode said thermal head performs repeatedly said recording on an area of said recording medium having a different length in said sub-scan direction, so that a total number of recordings performed in a given length in said sub-scan direction is constant for each said recording mode.

A thermal transfer recording apparatus for transferring an ink of an ink sheet onto a recording medium to record an image on said recording medium, said apparatus comprising:

• recording medium conveying means for conveying said recording medium in a sub-scan direction;
• ink sheet conveying means for conveying said ink sheet;
• recording means for acting on said ink sheet to record on said recording medium a predetermined amount of the image according to a recording information, said recording means recording said predetermined amount of the image in a main scan direction different from the sub-scan direction;
• signal generating means for generating a signal representative of a recording mode according to information involved in an image to be recorded;
• first control means for controlling a ratio of a conveyance amount of said ink sheet to a conveyance amount of said recording medium at recording in accordance with the signal generated from said signal generating means so as to maintain constant a recording density of said predetermined amount of the image recorded by said recording means;
• and
• second control means for controlling said recording means to perform repeatedly a recording based on a same recording information a number of times which varies in accordance with the signal generated from said signal generating means,
• wherein said second control means controls said recording means in such a manner that in a predetermined recording mode said recording means performs repeatedly a recording based on a same recording information a first number of times, and in another recording mode different from said predetermined recording mode, said recording means performs repeatedly a recording based on a same recording information a second number of times different from said first number of times, and
• wherein a length in said sub-scan direction of an area of said recording medium on which a recording based on a same recording information is performed said first number of times in said predetermined recording mode is different from to a length in said sub-scan direction of an area of said recording medium on which a recording based on a same recording information is performed said second number of times in said other recording mode, so that a total number of recordings performed in a given length in said sub-scan direction is constant for each said recording mode.