Patent ID: 7474323

Claim:
A print apparatus comprising: a print unit that records print on a recording medium by pressing a thermal head against the recording medium with a ribbon film placed between the thermal head and the recording medium, the ribbon film having a base film on which transfer-material areas and margin areas including cue marks for the respective transfer-material areas are alternately arranged in the longitudinal direction of the base film; a cue-mark detector positioned downstream of the print unit and configured to detect the cue marks; a ribbon-moving mechanism that moves the ribbon film having the transfer-material areas and the cue marks being arranged on the ribbon film such that L 1 <L 2 is satisfied, where L 1 , which is 0 or more, is a distance between the leading edge of each transfer-material area and the corresponding cue mark and L 2 , which is more than 0, is a distance between a transfer position of the thermal head and a cue-mark detection position of the cue-mark detector, thereby positioning the ribbon film with respect to a print start position.