Patent ID: 7290855

Claim:
A printing apparatus that uses a printing head, in which a plurality of printing elements are arranged, to perform printing on a printing medium, said apparatus comprising: a scanning unit that scans the printing medium with the printing head in a direction different from a direction in which the plurality of printing elements are arranged; a conveying unit that conveys the printing medium between successive scans by said scanning unit along a conveying path, said conveying unit using a conveying table in which one of a plurality of conveying amounts including at least a conveying amount that is not an integer-multiple of an interval between the printing elements arranged in the arrangement direction is defined for each scan, to refer to the conveying amount corresponding to each scan; and a switching unit that switches the conveying table to be used from among more than one conveying table based on information on a position of the printing medium on the conveying path, wherein said switching unit judges whether the conveying amount, which is not the integer-multiple of the interval and is defined for the scan just before the switching, is the same as the conveying amount, which is not the integer-multiple of the interval and is defined for the scan just after the switching, when executing the switching based on the information, and does not execute the switching when the judgment is affirmative and executes the switching when the judgment is not affirmative.