PURPOSE: To reduce a running cost, to make an apparatus small in size and to enable the attainment of many prints by one replacement of an ink film, by conveying the ink film at a prescribed speed lower than the one of recording paper and in the direction opposite to that of the recording paper.

CONSTITUTION: A guide roller 9 guides an ink film 1 so that the ink film 1 winds on a platen 4, together with recording paper 2, at a prescribed winding angle H invariably on the opposite side to the direction of movement of the ink film 1 in relation to a head 3. The ink film 1 and the recording paper 2 are held under pressure between the head 3 and the platen 4, and a film feed roller 6 is driven in the direction of an arrow C, so that the ink film 1 be conveyed at a prescribed moving speed in the direction of an arrow A. A paper feed roller 5 is driven in the direction of an arrow D, and the recording paper 2 is conveyed thereby at a prescribed speed in the direction of an arrow B, while ink is transferred thereon in the part under pressure between the head 3 and the platen 4. Between the ink film 1 and the recording paper 2 a certain frictional load exists invariably and acts as a back tension. The back tension depends only on a coefficient of the friction between the ink film 1 and the recording paper 2 and the winding angle H and is always maintained at a prescribed level.