Record receiver having plural interactive leaves or a colorless – Having plural interactive leaves
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-01
2001-04-10
Hess, Bruce H. (Department: 1774)
Record receiver having plural interactive leaves or a colorless
Having plural interactive leaves
C428S195100, C428S913000, C428S914000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06214767
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a transfer material for use in thermal transfer which is useful for forming transfer images of a desired tone, as well as a method of forming thermal transfer images of a desired tone by using the transfer material.
The present invention further relates to a method of forming images of sepia tone by laminating a laminate film colored to the sepia tone over images formed on a hard copy by an optional method, thereby obtaining a hard copy of the sepia tone.
2. Description of Related Art
An image forming method by thermal transfer process of heating an ink ribbon by a thermal head of the like in accordance with image information, transferring a dye from the ink ribbon to a material undergoing image transfer material such as a sheet of photographic paper (hereinafter referred to as a transfer material) by means of heat melting or thermal diffusion and forming images on the transferred material has been adopted generally. In particular, an image forming method by a subliming thermal transfer process for forming thermal transfer images by using an ink ribbon having an ink layer comprising a subliming or heat diffusing dye has been noted in recent years as a method of preparing a hard copy of video images since full color photographic images of a continuous gradation can be formed.
By the way, transfer materials used for forming images in the thermal transfer process have been formed so as to exhibit a white color. This is because better color reproducibility can be provided to images as an output sheet of a hard copy. If the transfer material exhibits a color other than white, full color or black and white photographic-images can not be formed at a good color reproducibility.
On the other hand, it has also been desired to provide images with various refined appearance in recent years. For example, since photographs discolored to a sepia tone provides a feeling of elapse of long years, sepia tone photographs have been prepared artificially by applying a special treatment to silver salt photographic paper and displayed and sold then in theme parks such as Western village. Further, in a case of forming sepia tone images by the thermal transfer process, the tones of images outputted to a printer are adjusted to the sepia tone by using soft wares in the printer or soft wares of a host computer to a digital printer. That is, in a video printer, since input signals are usually video signals such as NTSC composite, S-Video or RGB composite signals, it is difficult to convert image data into those of the sepia tone. Then, the outputted images are converted into the sepia tone by changing the soft wares in the printer and providing a print density curve used exclusively for the sepia tone. Further, in a digital printer, images on the connected host computer are previously converted into the sepia tone by the soft wares of the host computer and then the data are transferred to the printer.
However, among the existent methods for forming sepia tone images, a method of preparing the sepia tone photographs by applying a special treatment to a silver salt photographic paper involves a problem with respect to the toxicity of a solution for the treatment or the post-treating method.
Further, a method of forming sepia tone images by the thermal transfer or ink jet process, by softwares in the printer or soft wares of the host computer for the digital printer involves a problem that replacement of soft wares is difficult between a case of forming images of usual tones and a case of forming images of the sepia tone.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing problems, it is an object of the present invention to enable to easily prepare hard copies of a unique apparatus not attainable so far, with no restriction to the sepia tone.
The present inventors have accomplished the present invention based on the finding, beyond the traditional concept, that images having a unique appearance can be formed easily, in attaining faithful color reproducibility by coloring a transfer material for use in the formation of images by a silver salt photographic process, ink jet process or thermal transfer process to an optional color previously and forming images on the transfer material.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a transfer material for use in thermal transfer comprising a substrate and a dye receiving layer, wherein the transfer material is colored to a predetermined color.
Further, the present invention provides a material of forming images of a sepia tone of forming images to a transfer material having a sepia tone as a predetermined color.
The present invention further provides a method of forming sepia tone images which comprises laminating a laminate film colored to a sepia tone.
In particularly embodiments, such a transferred material for use in thermal transfer includes those in which a substrate or a dye receiving layer is colored to a predetermined color, or an intermediate layer disposed between the substrate and the dye receiving layer is colored to a predetermined color, as well as in which the substrate, the intermediate layer or the dye receiving layer constituting the transfer material is colored and, in addition, a printing layer is formed between each of the layers, thereby coloring the transfer material. Further, there is also provided an embodiment in which an average tone preferably provided to the transfer material has a distance l from an origin of not less than 10, and L* of not less than 40, assuming L*=100, a*=0, b*=0 as origin in L*a*b* calorimetric system.
In accordance with the present invention, there is also provided a method of forming thermal transfer images of a predetermined color by forming the images by a thermal transfer process to a colored transfer material for use in thermal transfer.
According to the thermal transfer image forming method of the present invention, images of desired tones including sepia tone can easily be formed by using a existent thermal transfer recording process.
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Hess Bruce H.
Sony Corporation
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