PURPOSE: To provide an ink ribbon particularly having a simple structure capable of saving a device cost which is placed between a print head and a paper, and an ink thereon is transferred to a position on the paper corresponding to heated resistors in the print head.

CONSTITUTION: In an ink ribbon 10 on which colors of yellow(Y), magenta(M) and cyan(C) are coated in order, transparent sections I-III in respective boundary sections between them are formed having different widths L1-L3. A light emitted from a photosensor 17 is reflected by a silver tape 18 and a detection time of the reflection light is detected so that a position of the transparent section is discriminated, thereby it is possible to detect the boundary sections of respective colors in a markedly simple structure.