Printing apparatus

A printing apparatus, comprising:

• a supporting part configured to support a medium;
• a carriage at which a printing head configured to perform printing on the medium supported by the supporting part is disposed;
• and
• a gap adjusting unit configured to adjust a gap between the supporting part and the printing head, wherein the gap adjusting unit includes:
• a driving unit;
• a power transmission unit including a rotation shaft configured to rotate with a driving force of the driving unit;
• a lifting unit configured to move the carriage up and down with a rotational force of the rotation shaft, transmitted by the power transmission unit;
• and
• a relative displacement mechanism configured to relatively displace one of two members in a direction of allowing an upward displacement of the carriage with respect to the other of the two members that is in an operation stop state, the two members being members making up at least one of the power transmission unit or the lifting unit and making contact with each other, wherein
• the one of the two members is a gear,
• the other of the two members is a rotation shaft configured to support the gear in a relatively rotatable manner, and
• the relative displacement mechanism is an idling mechanism configured to idle the gear with respect to the rotation shaft.