Patent ID: 8159514

Claim:
A printing apparatus comprising: an image transfer unit configured to perform a color printing on a recording medium by thermally transferring a plurality of color materials onto the recording medium in a sequential manner thereby superimposing images in respective color materials; a medium conveyance unit configured to convey the recording medium using a stepper motor as a drive source so that the recording medium passes through the image transfer unit; a synchronism loss detection sensor configured to detect an occurrence of a loss of synchronism in the stepper motor; a reference position detection sensor configured to detect that the recording medium conveyed by the medium conveyance unit is located at a predetermined reference position; and a conveyance control unit configured to make the medium conveyance unit repeat a forward conveyance of the recording medium from a transfer start position located at a predetermined distance from the reference position and a reverse conveyance of the recording medium to the transfer start position for each of the color materials when the image transfer unit performs the color printing, and, if the synchronism loss detection sensor detects the loss of synchronism in a process of the repeating, make the image transfer unit resume the color printing on the recording medium interrupted by the loss of synchronism through positioning the recording medium in the repeating process to the reference position using a detection result of the reference position detection sensor and conveying the recording medium in the repeating process from the reference position to the transfer start position.