US Patent 7551191 Printing apparatus

A printing apparatus includes (a) a lever member which displaces at least one of a thermal head and a platen roller so that the head and the roller come close to each other or come away from each other, and (b) a driving unit which operates the lever member. The driving unit includes a rotary member having a rotary center shaft in a direction crossing a conveying direction of a recording medium and a roller shaft direction of the platen roller, and the rotary member is disposed in a conveying width region of the recording medium.