Abstract: An apparatus and method for the compensation of the effects of residual heat of the resistive heads of a thermal print head is discussed. In photographic applications, the general residual heat pattern through the pass of a page in front of the print head is characterized in advance and is generally unique to each type of printer head. Thereafter compensation is made based on this characteristic. In one embodiment of the invention, data are collected over time and the print head thermal characterization is updated and stored for future use, for example, in a non-volatile memory.