公开(公告)号：US10471736B2

公开(公告)日：2019-11-12

申请号：US16104581

申请日：2018-08-17

Applicant: TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD.

Inventor： Yasushi Kishimoto ,  Tomoyuki Marugame

IPC: B41J2/52 ,  B41J2/325 ,  B41M5/382 ,  H04N1/405 ,  B42D25/40 ,  B42D25/328

Abstract: Thermal transfer image data is used to transfer part of a transfer material layer in a transfer ribbon to an image-receiving layer in an intermediate transfer ribbon to form a plurality of image cells on the intermediate transfer ribbon. A method for providing thermal transfer image data includes converting a multitone input image into a multitone image having fewer different tone values than the input image, based on a predetermined threshold; and dithering respective tone values of the image.