Patent ID: 7874629

Claim:
A printing apparatus for forming an image on a piece of fabric, comprising: a plurality of types of exchangeable fabric holders, one of which is selectively mounted in the printing apparatus to hold the fabric; a recording head, which is driven to eject ink onto the fabric according to printable data, the printable data including image information representing the image to be printed and holder information concerning a type of the fabric holder to be used for forming the image in the printing apparatus; an obtaining unit to obtain the printable data from external environment; a storage unit with a storage area to store the holder information extracted from the printable data; an examination unit to examine as to whether the holder information included in printable data to be used in a current printing operation is identical with the holder information extracted from the printable data used in a previous printing operation and stored in the storage area; and an indication unit, which indicates a result of the examination obtained by the examination unit to notify a user of the printing apparatus of necessity of exchanging the fabric holders when the fabric holder to be used in the current printing operation is different from the fabric holder used in the previous printing operation.