To provide a printer in which an appropriate winding tension can be imparted to an ink ribbon in correspondence with the type of the ink ribbon.

With regard to a drive current being fed to the drive motor of a ribbon winding shaft, a plurality of current value patterns are preset in a memory 81 (storage means). Any one of the plurality of current value patterns is selected on an operating panel 13 (selecting means) and a drive motor 73 is driven based on the selected current value pattern. The plurality of current value patterns being stored in the memory 81 (storage means) are preset such that a tension acting between a print head and the ribbon winding shaft is substantially constant from the start-of-winding to the end-of-winding depending on the type of an ink ribbon being set on a ribbon feed shaft.