High resolution thermal printing by imaging a hard copy image in vertical and horizontal increments smaller than the pixel pitch of a video imager array

摘要

An apparatus and method for generating a high resolution image for a thermal printer from a video imager having a plurality of pixels with a preselected pitch comprises dithering the video imager. The video imager is dithered at less than the pitch of the pixels and provides arrays of data representing video imager positions generated by halfstep offsets of the video imager in the horizontal and vertical directions. The halfstep movement of the video imager causes the pixels to map a new area of an image without overlap of a previously mapped area. The dithered arrays are transmitted to a thermal printer so that the printed image contains more information than is generated by a static video imager.