Patent ID: 7232198

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; wherein the correction reference value storage unit stores a temperature subrange table on which consecutive numbers are assigned to 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.