Printing apparatus

Abstract

For a printing operation, it is judged whether a print-direction indicated sheet is stored in a longitudinal sheet cartridge or lateral sheet cartridge. If the indicated sheet is judged to be a sheet stored in the longitudinal sheet cartridge, the presence of a sheet in the longitudinal sheet cartridge is judged. If a sheet is judged to remain in the longitudinal sheet cartridge, the longitudinal sheet cartridge is selected and a second feeding control unit feeds a sheet to perform the printing operation in a print engine. On the other hand, if a sheet is judged not to remain, the sheet cartridge is switched to a lateral sheet cartridge and a sheet is fed by a first feeding control unit. In this switching operation, the print data is developed to meet the switched print direction in a data developing unit so that the same print-out result as obtained before the cartridge switching operation takes place is obtained after the cartridge switching operation. Accordingly, even when the properly oriented sheets are lacking in the course of the printing operation, the printing operation can be continued without being interrupted for the addition of properly oriented sheets if the same size sheets remain in another sheet cartridge that can supply sheets having a different orientation with respect to the feeding direction.