To provide a printing apparatus that does not degrade the printing quality even when reciprocating shifts of a film-shaped medium are continued, an ink ribbon 41 that is the film-shaped medium is laid between a supply spool 43 and a wind-up spool 44 with regions used in printing on a single printing medium formed continuously in the longitudinal direction. A counter counts the number of times an unused region in the ink ribbon 41 located in a predetermined position between the supply spool 43 and the wind-up spool 44 reciprocates and shifts between the supply spool 43 and the wind-up spool 44, and when the number of times reaches the predetermined number, the wind-up spool 44 is driven to shift the region in the wind-up direction from the printing position.