Recording apparatus having carriage guide members for maintainig parallelism between a recording head and recording medium

A recording apparatus comprising:

• a carriage having a recording unit configured to perform recording on a recording medium, the carriage being movable in a direction crossing a recording medium conveying direction;
• a carriage guiding member configured to guide the carriage and on which the carriage is rotatably supported, a height of the carriage guiding member being changeable, whereby the carriage is raised and lowered;
• and
• first and second guide members configured to be in contact with the carriage in such a manner as to control a posture of the carriage, the first and second guide members being disposed on respective sides of the carriage guiding member in the recording medium conveying direction,
• wherein a length of a gap between the recording medium and the recording unit is changeable depending on the height of the carriage guiding member, and;
• wherein when the carriage guiding member is at a lowered position, the first guide member contacts a first portion of the carriage and the second guide member separates from the carriage, and when the carriage guiding member is at a raised position, the second guide member contacts a second portion of the carriage and the first guide member separates from the carriage.