Patent ID: 7980646

Claim:
A recording apparatus that performs a recording operation on a recording medium by alternately performing a transport operation and the recording operation, the recording apparatus comprising: a transport unit that transports the recording medium; a moving unit that moves a recording unit; a feed unit that feeds the recording medium; a feed starting unit that starts feeding of the recording medium by using the feed unit by an operation performed by the recording unit that has moved to a predetermined position on a moving path of the recording unit outside a recordable area; a control unit that controls the transport unit and the moving unit; and a determination unit that determines whether the moving direction of the recording unit for recording the last line of the first copy is toward the predetermined position in a case where a recording operation for a plurality of copies of the same data is performed, wherein the control unit controls the moving unit such that the moving direction of the recording unit for recording a first line of the second copy or one of the following copies is opposite to the moving direction of the recording unit for recording a first line of the first copy when the moving direction of the recording unit for recording the last line of the first copy is determined not to be toward the predetermined position, wherein the determination unit acquires a total distance required for the recording unit, which has completed recording the last line, to move to the predetermined position and to move from the predetermined position to the move starting position of the first line before and after the reversing the moving direction and determines whether the total distance in a case where the moving direction is reversed is shorter than that in a case where the moving direction is not reversed, when determining that the moving direction of the moving unit is not toward the predetermined position, and wherein the control unit sets the moving direction of the recording unit for recording the first line of the second copy or one of the succeeding copies to be opposite to that for recording the first line of the first copy when the determination condition of the determination unit is satisfied.