Thermal printer operative in three modes including direct printing, printing with black ink ribbon cassette, and printing with color ink ribbon cassette

Claim 1

A printing device capable of operating in a selected one of a thermal, a black ink ribbon and a color ink ribbon printing mode, comprising: a frame; a platen suported on said frame for holding a paper sheet; a printing head, and means to press the printing head toward the paper sheet held by said platen when set in an ON-state; a carrier for supporting said printing head, said means to press the printing head and a selected one of a black ink and a color ink ribbon cassette having, respectively, an associated ink ribbon, wherein a selected cassette can be detachably mounted on said carrier and the associated ink ribbon is then fed between said printing head and the paper sheet held by said platen; driver means for moving said carrier along the direction of said platen, and ink ribbon feeding means to feed said associated ink ribbon when a selected cassette is mounted on said carrier; first detecting means associated with said carrier for generating a color output signal upon detecting that a color ink ribbon cassette is mounted on said carrier; second detecting means, arranged along the cassette ink ribbon path, for generating a first output signal while detecting a black area of the associated ink ribbon and for generating a second output signal while not detecting a black area of the associated ink ribbon; and control means coupled to said first and said second detecting means to establish a test mode when at least one of the conditions of powering said printing device and putting said printing device in an ON-line mode occurs, for (a) setting color ink printing mode flag upon detecting that the color output signal is generated from said first detecting means, (b) actuating said ink ribbon feeding means to operate in a manner capable of feeding the associated ink ribbon by a given ribbon length and (c) setting a selected one of a black ink printing mode flag and a thermal printing mode flag for direct printing on heat sensitive paper upon detecting, respectively, that the first or the second output signal is continuously generated from said second detecting means during actuation of the ink ribbon feeding means, said control means establishing a printing mode after said test mode for setting said printing head in the ON-state in the printing mode and supplying character data to said printing head while causing said printing head to be moved while printing on the paper sheet.