Patent ID: 8474706

Claim:
A printing apparatus comprising: a recording unit that reads out and rewrites an amount of money recorded on a recording medium which has come in contact therewith or has approached thereto; a printing unit that prints print data based on predetermined print conditions; a pre-charging unit that makes pre-charging by calculating an estimate amount of charge that is estimated to be required for printing the print data based on the predetermined print conditions, reading out the amount of money recorded on the recording medium through the recording unit, subtracting the estimate amount of charge from the read-out amount of money, and rewriting the amount of money recorded on the recording medium into the subtracted amount of money through the recording unit; a control unit that causes printing by the printing unit to be started when pre-charging is made by the pre-charging unit, and stops a printing process that is a process relating to printing when an estimate-amount-of-money changing factor which causes a change in the estimate amount of money is generated after initiation of the printing in the printing unit; a designating unit that designates a print mode including an automatic color-monochrome mode that prints print data in accordance with color or monochrome; and an input unit that inputs print information including print data for printing in the print unit and a number of pages for the print data, the predetermined print condition including at least a number of pages included in the print information inputted by the input unit and the print mode designated by the designating unit, the estimate-amount-of-money changing factor including a first estimate-amount-of-money charging factor in which the amount of money for the automatic color-monochrome mode does not match the estimate amount of money, the pre-charging unit calculating the estimate amount of money under an assumption that the all pages are printed in color, when the print mode designated by the designating unit is the automatic color-monochrome mode, the pre-charging unit calculating again the estimate amount of money changing in accordance with the generation of the estimate-amount-of-money changing factor when the printing process is stopped by the control unit, and making settlement by rewriting the amount of money recorded on the recording medium by the recording unit based on a re-calculated estimate amount of money, and the control unit causing the printing unit to restart the printing process after the rewriting by the pre-charging unit is done.