Patent ID: 8240928

Claim:
A printer that supplies a recording medium wound in a roll, from a recording medium accommodating unit accommodating the recording medium to a printing unit and that prints on the recording medium, wherein the recording medium accommodating unit is formed by a first recording medium holding unit that holds the recording medium when the printer is in a first installation state and a second recording medium holding unit that holds the recording medium when the printer is in a second installation state that is different from the first installation state, and the recording medium accommodating unit includes: a first detecting unit that detects that a core part in the center of the recording medium has reached a predetermined position in consequence of consumption of the recording medium held by the first recording medium holding unit; a second detecting unit that detects that the core part in the center of the recording medium has reached a predetermined position in consequence of the consumption of the recording medium held by the second recording medium holding unit; and an activation mechanism that activates detection for either the first detecting unit or the second detecting unit by moving the first and the second detecting units to their respective activation positions corresponding to either the first installation state or the second installation state.