Patent ID: 7500731

Claim:
A printer comprising: a print head for making reciprocating motion transversely with respect to a recording medium to thereby perform both forward printing and backward printing on the recording medium; a misalignment correction unit for correcting misalignment between the forward printing and the backward printing; a setting unit for setting a correction reference value for the misalignment correction unit; a first temperature detection unit for detecting an ambient temperature of the printer as a first temperature when setting the correction reference value by the setting unit; a second temperature detection unit for detecting an ambient temperature of the printer as a second temperature when performing the printing by the printer; a correction reference value storage unit for storing the correction reference value set by the setting unit; a first temperature storage unit for storing the first temperature detected by the first temperature detection unit; and a calculation unit for calculating a misalignment correction value by revising the correction reference value read out from the correction reference value storage unit on the basis of a result of comparison between the first temperature read out from the first temperature storage unit and the second temperature detected by the second temperature detection unit, wherein the misalignment correction unit corrects misalignment on the basis of the misalignment correction value calculated by the calculation unit, and wherein the correction reference value storage unit stores a temperature subrange table comprising the temperature subranges obtained by dividing an available temperature range of the printer unequally so that a lower temperature subrange is narrower than a higher temperature subrange, and as a result, unequal divisions of the temperature range allow an accumulated amount of misalignment in one temperature subrange to be substantially equal to that in another temperature subrange.