US Patent 7907290 Printer with variable lead advance

A printer and method for operating a printer are provided that prints using a receiver medium having a rolled portion with an outermost layer from which an unrolled portion extends to a print engine. The method comprises: sensing a condition indicating the receiver medium may have been contacted by other than a component of the printer or by a donor material applied by the print engine; measuring an aspect of the receiver medium indicative of the circumferential length of the outermost layer; determining a circumferential length of the receiver medium based upon the measured aspect of the rolled portion of the receiver medium; determining an exclusion length of the receiver medium based upon the determined circumferential length and a travel distance that is a representation of a length of the unrolled portion between the rolled portion and the print engine; and automatically advancing the receiver medium by the exclusion length.