To provide a tape printer which can precisely synchronize the feed of a printing tape with the driving of a print head.

The tape printer has a single motor 31 driving a feed roller 17 and a tape cutter 11, a clutch 24 transmitting the normal or reverse rotation of the motor 31 to the feed roller 17 and transmitting the other rotation to the tape cutter 11, a roller gear train 33 transmitting power from the clutch 24 to the feed roller 17, a cutter gear train 34 transmitting power from the clutch 24 to the tape cutter 11, and an encoder 61 having a rotor 62 attached to either of an arbitrary gear shaft of the roller gear array 33 or the roller shaft 14 of the feed roller 17 and a detector 63 fronting on the rotor 62 and generating a driving signal to synchronize the tape feed of the feed roller 17 with the driving of the print head 13.