Simplified printer drive mechanism

Claim 1

A printer for transferring colorant from a donor web to a receiver web, comprising: a) a rotatable platen roller; b) a printhead having an energy transfer portion engaging the donor web and pressing the donor web into engagement with the receiver web and the receiver web into the surface of the rotatable platen roller to form a nip so that as the rotatable platen rotates, both the receiver web and the donor web are translated; c) means for applying energy to the printhead which is transferred from the energy transfer portion of the printhead to the donor web to transfer colorant to the receiver web at the nip; d) means for sensing the movement of the receiver web for controlling the rotation of the rotatable platen roller and the energy applying means; e) means for sensing the position of the receiver web; and f) means including two spaced apart controllers responsive to the receiver web position sensing means for adjusting the pressure at different positions of the print head on the printhead to control the pressure along the nip to change the slippage of the receiver against the rotatable platen to correct for skew errors of the receiver entering the nip.