A digital hand stamp that can print multiple images on a supporting surface. The digital hand stamp includes a frame member, an ink jet printing head, a non-volatile memory, an image selection button, a display area, and a printing control circuit. The frame member has a cavity. The ink jet printing head has one or more nozzles. The ink jet printing head can be activated to slide inside the cavity of the frame member when the digital hand stamp is pressed against the supporting surface. The non-volatile memory can store a plurality of images. The image selection button can select an image from the plurality of images stored in the non-volatile memory. The display area can display the image selected by the selection button. The printing control circuit controls the nozzles on the ink jet printing head to project an ink pattern on the supporting surface when the ink jet printing head slides inside the cavity of the frame member. The ink pattern on the supporting surface represents the image selected by the image selection button.

A measurement and marking device includes a housing, a positional sensing assembly mounted in the housing, a printhead assembly mounted in the housing, and a controller mounted in the housing and communicating with the positional sensing assembly and the printhead assembly. The positional sensing assembly is adapted to sense a position of the housing relative to an object as the housing is moved along a surface of the object and the printhead assembly is adapted to print on the surface of the object as the housing is moved along the surface of the object. As such, the controller is adapted to operate the printhead assembly to print a mark on the surface of the object based on the position of the housing relative to the object as the housing is moved along the surface of the object.

A handheld printing device and method for printing are disclosed. The handheld device comprises a print head, a graphical screen and at least one positioning sensor that co-operates with a micro controller circuit. The print head can be moved by hand directly to the area where the text or image is to be printed, and can be automatically steered to enable a faster printout, especially for printouts having text or images spread out over the printout surface with empty space in between. The manual movement of the print head is facilitated by the graphical screen of the device showing at each moment a portion of the picture corresponding in position to the printout in progress.

A method and apparatus for printing a redundant code on an elongate article are disclosed. The apparatus includes an ink unit, at least one printing head and a controller. The printing head includes two, or three, valves, controlled by the controller. As the elongate article passes through a printing station, the controller selectively actuates the valves to release ink, and thus print the code. The two valves are preferably aligned and laterally spaced from each other in order to print the same code twice on the article.

A hand-operated printer includes a body, a printhead mounted to the body, a target sight mounted to the body, and a display device mounted to the body. The display device is configured to display an image and a representation of the target sight in relation to the image, and wherein the relation between the representation of the target sight and the image that are displayed on the display device corresponds to a relationship between the target sight and a print position for the image.