Importance

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Abstract

There are disclosed an apparatus and a method for thermal printing by dye transfer of a high definition image on a receiver element such as a full color slide transparency. This new thermal printing apparatus includes a laser, means to scan a finely focused spot of light from the laser along a line, means to position a dye donor element and a closely adjacent receiver element (side transparency) to be scanned by the laser light spot, and laser drive and control logic (LDCL) means for turning the laser full-on to an optimum power level for a time determined by high speed print data in the form of data words. The method according to the invention includes the step of applying to a dye donor element thermal energy from a laser at a power level at which the dye ablates rather than sublimes. The laser is driven at an optimum power-on level and the length of time the laser is on determines the amount of dye transferred to a receiver element as a dye pixel. This substantially improves the linearity of tone scale of the dye pixels printed on the receiver element over a wide range of exposures and densities. A slide transparency image made in this way nearly equals and, in some cases, may exceed the visual quality of an image made by photography.

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First Claim