| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To indicate correctly the residual amount of an ink ribbon and also to prevent printing with a faulty ink ribbon. SOLUTION: An ink ribbon cassette 8 holds a thermal transfer ink ribbon. A magnetic layer 12 is formed on an end face 10 thereof by applying magnetic coating thereon and the printable number of times is recorded magnetically in the magnetic layer beforehand. In every execution of printing, a microcomputer 22 acquires the previous executed number of times of printing recorded in the magnetic layer 12 of the ink ribbon cassette 8, through a magnetic head 18 and a reproduction circuit 23, and after adding 1 to the executed number of times of printing, records the number in the magnetic layer 12 through a recording circuit 20 and the magnetic head 18. Besides, it reads the printable number of times from the magnetic layer 12 likewise and indicates the difference of this number from the executed number of times of printing in a liquid crystal display device 25, as the residual amount of the ink ribbon 4. Printing is not conducted when the executed number of times of printing reaches the printable number of times.
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