To eliminate a problem of a decrease in a quality of an image printed on a recording member due to a wrinkle generated by urging a slack of an ink ribbon to a recording head at the time of printing by descending the head in the state that the ribbon remains slacked at the time of causing the ribbon contained in a cartridge to be slacked in a conventional printer.

The printer takes up a predetermined amount of an ink ribbon on a take-up reel by rotating a take-up bobbin 17 by a rotation of a drive source in the state that a recording head 11 is accelerated after a cartridge K is mounted at a cassette mount 10. Therefore, even if the ribbon is slacked, the slack of the ribbon can be taken up in the state that the head is ascended, thereby preventing an inconvenience such as a jam or the like to occur at the ribbon.