Patent ID: 8810849

Claim:
A printing method that alternately repeats a transport operation that transports a continuous medium in a transport direction and an image forming operation that moves a head to form an image to thereby print out a first image and a second image, which has a smaller length in the transport direction than the first image, on the continuous medium, the printing method comprising: setting a unit area, which is equal to or smaller than the size of a printing area that is printable through the one image forming operation, on the basis of the printable printing area and the size of the first image; generating print data for the unit area by setting an integer number of first images and second images to minimize at least one margin, such that, within the unit area, the integer number of the first images are aligned at a first spacing in the transport direction, the integer number of the second images are aligned at a second spacing in the transport direction, and the integer number of the first images aligned in the transport direction and the integer number of the second images aligned in the transport direction are printed so as to be aligned in a width direction that intersects with the transport direction; and performing printing using the print data repeatedly so that, on the continuous medium, a plurality of the first images are aligned at the first spacing in the transport direction and a plurality of the second images are aligned at the second spacing in the transport direction, wherein, when the print data are generated, after setting the integer number of the first images, of which the length is larger in the width direction than the second images, that are printed so as to be aligned in the width direction, the integer number of the second images that are printed so as to be aligned in the width direction is set, wherein the length of the first spacing is equal to or smaller than length of the second spacing.