It is from the second half of the 1970s that applied the technology of the thermal-transfer-printing system to the world, and it was put in practical use as the printer and word processor of a season ticket issuing machine.
Especially in the word processor, electronic equipment manufacturers came to sell many word processors to the market.
However, when it becomes late in the 1980s, a personal computer will replace a word processor by evolution of software, and it came to be classified and used for the personal computer and the printer (terminal printer).
At the present, this terminal printer becomes not only a thermal-transfer-printing system but a form which competes and suits high-definition picture formation from convenience or cost, and the number of the printers of an ink-jet system or a laser print system is increasing.
However, since a work principle is easy in a thermal-transfer-recording system and also there is a feature that the design with budget prices is comparatively possible, and it can miniaturize, many are used also for fields other than a terminal printer.
There are specifically two, a melting type thermal-transfer-printing system and a sublimated type thermal-transfer-printing system, in a thermal-transfer-printing system.
One is since fine printing performance and the durability of printed matter are good, it is used for many fields, such as a facsimile and a bar code, another is used for the photograph field which forms a picture because it can express story tonality richly in the latter. Development of ink ribbon with functionality is needed to change of such a market, and the performance as a thermal-transfer-printing material has also come to improve by improving development of ink and coating technology.
Especially this article explains focusing on a change of the ink technology of a facsimile or the melting type thermal-transfer-printing material for bar codes.
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