THERMAL INK-TRANSFER PRINTER

PURPOSE:To obtain high printing quality by eliminating the shortage of the printing density near the start point of printing, by preheating a printing head during the approach run of a carrier. CONSTITUTION:A printing head 3 is heated on the printing data from a printing head drive means 2. The outputs from a printing data retention means 1 and a preheating data generation means 10 are respectively inputted to a switching means 20. Then, the information on whether a motor is in the approach run to a stabilized fixed speed or not is sent to the switching means 20 from the carrier motor drive means 4 by which a carrier motor 5 is driven. If the switching means 20 is in the approach run, the output of the preheating data generation means 10 and if it is not in the approach run, the output of the printing data retention means 1 is outputted to the printing head drive means 2. The printing head 3 is preheated during the approach run of the carrier motor 5, warmed almost to T1 at the start time point ts of printing and the shortage of the printing density does never occur at the start time of printing.