A printing apparatus includes: a ribbon supply roll; a thermal head that heats an ink ribbon fed out from the ribbon supply roll and thereby transfers an ink onto an image receiving body; a ribbon take-up roll that takes up the ink ribbon after transfer of the ink; a supply side guide member disposed to be displaced in a direction orthogonal to an axial direction, so as to changeably apply tension to the ink ribbon by biasing force of a supply side spring member; and a take-up side guide member disposed to be displaced in a direction orthogonal to an axial direction, so as to changeably apply tension to the ink ribbon by biasing force of a take-up side spring member. A spring constant of the supply side spring member is different from a spring constant of the take-up side spring member.