Patent ID: 8757757

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a sheet feeding unit configured to feed a continuous sheet along a path; a printing unit including a plurality of print heads, wherein the printing unit is configured to print, at a printing position, unit images in sequence on the continuous sheet fed from the sheet feeding unit; a sensing unit configured to sense a splice of the continuous sheet at a sensing position, wherein the sensing position is provided in the path and upstream of the printing position; an adjusting mechanism configured to change a print gap between a print head and the continuous sheet; and a control unit, configured to control, wherein the control unit controls the adjusting mechanism to temporarily increase the print gap when the splice passes under the print head and to change the print gap while the continuous sheet is moving, wherein, when the sensing unit senses the splice during printing of one unit image at the printing position, the control unit controls the printing unit to continue printing a remainder of the one unit image while setting an unprintable area in a direction of sheet conveyance and avoiding printing in the unprintable area, and wherein the unprintable area includes the splice and is set in a first unprintable area located on a downstream side of the splice and a second unprintable area located on an upstream side of the splice, wherein the first unprintable area and the second unprintable area each have at least a predetermined length corresponding to a sum of (i) a length of the plurality of print heads in the sheet conveyance direction and (ii) a distance of movement of the continuous sheet in a period required by the adjusting mechanism to change the print gap while the continuous sheet is moving.