An electrophotographic recording apparatus comprising these units which are arranged vertically: a sheet feeder for feeding a sheet of recording paper to a sheet feed inlet; an image forming unit for forming a printing image onto a photosensitive drum based on printing data and transferring the printing image onto the sheet; and a fixing unit for fixing the transferred image on the sheet. The apparatus further comprises a sheet switching guide mechanism by which the head end of the sheet is switched to both upper and lower directions. When the sheet switching guide mechanism is set to the upper direction, the printed sheet is forwarded by a sheet guide member to thereby pass through the printing path the sheet has already been through with the rear side of the sheet being the front, and the printing data is written from the last line during this process.