Thermal printer

A thermal printer of the type using a thermo-sensitive recording sheet prepared by applying a recording material onto a front side of a carrier sheet, with or without an opaque protective sheet bonded thereon, said thermal printer comprising:

• a rotatable platen for feeding said thermo-sensitive recording sheet in a first direction;
• and
• a carriage mounted adjacent said platen and movable along said platen;
• a thermal head pivotally mounted on the carriage;
• heat-generation control means for controlling, in accordance with a heating control mode, the heat generation of said thermal head in order to perform thermal recording of a normal image, an image whose left and right sides are reversed, or an image whose top and bottom sides are inverted on said thermo-sensitive sheet;
• heating mode control means for switching the heating control mode to one of a normal image heating control mode, a horizontally-reversed image heating control mode in which an image is recorded with its left and right sides reversed, or a vertically-inverted image heating control mode in which an image is recorded with its top and bottom sides are inverted;
• and
• means for pressing said thermal head against one of the side of said thermo-sensitive recording sheet coated with said recording material, the protective sheet side of said thermo-sensitive recording sheet, and a back side of said carrier sheet which is opposite said front side in order to perform thermal recording of a normal image, an image whose left and right sides are reversed, or an image whose top and bottom sides are inverted and appears on the front side of the thermo-sensitive recording sheet by inducing a color change in said recording material.

A method for printing onto a thermo-sensitive recording sheet, the thermo-sensitive recording sheet being prepared by applying a recording material onto a front side of a carrier sheet, the method comprising the steps of:

• feeding the thermo-sensitive recording sheet using a rotatable platen such that the front side of the thermo-sensitive sensitive recording sheet contacts a surface of the rotatable platen;
• and
• driving a carriage mounted adjacent the platen such that the carriage moves along the platen;
• pivoting a thermal head mounted on the carriage such that the thermal head contacts a back side of the thermo-sensitive recording sheet, the back side of the carrier sheet being opposite to the front side of the carrier sheet;
• and
• controlling the thermal head to perform thermal recording on the thermo-sensitive recording sheet by inducing a color change in the recording material such that the thermal recording is visible only on the front side of the thermo-sensitive recording sheet.