Creating background colors on thermal printing material

Abstract

A dye ink or a pigmented ink application process using, for example, any one of flexographic printing, flood coating, tinting, or other suitable technique or process to add a colored area adjacent to a thermal ink layer of a thermal material is disclosed. The colored area provides a background color, such that upon application of the heat source, a thermal image appears as being imaged onto the colored area. The process can be used to make heat activated direct thermal labels or thermal paper rolls, including cash register-type rolls, poster printer format rolls, etc. The process permits a thermal material including a thermal ink layer to be produced in various colors in relatively small print runs using conventional equipment.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.