PURPOSE: To provide a tape printing device which can print decorative shadowed characters by freely changing the shadow direction or the size of shadow for an input character string.

CONSTITUTION: For an input character string, 'A, B, C, D', when a shadowadding pattern number '3' is set, and also, a 'void shadowed character' is set, since the shadow directions are vertical and lateral directions, and the shadow dot number is 5 dots, for the character 'A', a shadow for 5 dots is added on the left side Then, for the next character 'B', a shadow for 5 dots is added on the top side, and for the next character 'C', a shadow for 5 dots is added on the right side, and for the next character 'D', a shadow for 5 dots is added on the bottom side, and the character string is printed on a tape for printing in such a manner.