Patent ID: 8770870

Claim:
A printer that performs printing by transferring ink of an ink ribbon to paper, wherein a plurality of color inks is sequentially arranged on the ink ribbon, the printer comprising: a paper conveyance unit configured to convey paper; an ink ribbon conveyance unit configured to be driven by a same drive source as that of the paper conveyance unit and convey the ink ribbon only in a printing direction; a detection unit, configured to detect a marker, to detect the top of color inks provided on the ink ribbon; and a control unit configured to control the detection unit to perform marker detection processing for detecting a marker of the ink ribbon conveyed in the printing direction by the ink ribbon conveyance unit together with the paper while conveying the paper by the paper conveyance unit to a first position in the printing direction, and in a case where a marker is not detected during a period that the paper is conveyed to the first position in the marker detection processing, to cause the paper conveyance unit to convey only the paper in a direction opposite to the printing direction from the first position, and then to control the detection unit to perform the marker detection processing again, wherein a marker of a specific color ink of the ink ribbon includes a predetermined number of markers which is greater than that of other colors, and wherein, in a case where, when the printer performs detection of the specific color of the ink ribbon, markers the number of which is less than the predetermined number are detected during a period that the paper is conveyed to the first position, the control unit causes the paper conveyance unit to further convey the paper in the printing direction without conveying the paper in the direction opposite to the printing direction from the first position and controls the detection unit to detect a marker.