<title>Review on resistive thermal printing</title>

Abstract

The term thermal printing includes a very broad technological basis of printing an image with the use of thermal energy. The printing process involves one of the following mechanisms: (1) transfer of dyes, (2) transfer of pigments or dyes with a carrier, or (3) formation of dyes on a substrate. Starting in the late fifties thermal printing has been used in the textile business. This technology was widely used later in printing tickets, receipts and bar codes and in fax machines. The application of this printing technology in color hard copies was pioneered by Dai Nippon and first commercialized by Sony in the Mavica electronic photographic system in the late eighties. Since then many companies have participated, in various capacities, in the thermal printing business. At this time there is no doubt that thermal dye transfer printing with the use of resistive or laser printhead gives the highest photographic image quality in digital printing as compared to an optical printing system with silver halide materials.