Patent ID: 8246260

Claim:
A printer, comprising a print head, a print head transport mechanism capable of driving the print head to move reciprocally, a carriage connecting the print head and the print head transport mechanism, and a ribbon cassette mounting mechanism provided with a ribbon cassette for a multi color ink ribbon and capable of driving the ribbon cassette to swing, wherein, a movement region of the print head consists of one printing region and one shifting region, the printer further comprises a ribbon cassette supporting mechanism, a ribbon cassette shifting mechanism, and a resetting mechanism, wherein, the ribbon cassette supporting mechanism is located in the shifting region for correspondingly supporting the ribbon cassette mounting mechanism at different levels while the ribbon cassette supporting mechanism rotates to different angles, so as to shift color of the ink ribbon; the ribbon cassette shifting mechanism is fixed on the carriage and is used, in the shifting region, to lift the ribbon cassette mounting mechanism up to a position disengaged from the ribbon cassette supporting mechanism and to move the ribbon cassette supporting mechanism to rotate to different angles; and the resetting mechanism is fixed on the ribbon cassette supporting mechanism for resetting the ribbon cassette supporting mechanism when the ribbon cassette supporting mechanism is no longer contacted with the ribbon cassette mounting mechanism and the ribbon cassette shifting mechanism.