The present invention relates to an ink ribbon winding mechanism for a printer which prints with an ink ribbon. It is constructed by disposing a ribbon winding gear, which is connected with an ink ribbon winding shaft through a slipping mechanism, and a detection driving gear for detecting markers for color identification for a color ink ribbon, which is connected directly with the winding shaft, and by locating a transmission gear for transmitting the driving force of a driving source selectively to these two gears between the driving source driving the ink ribbon winding shaft and the winding gear as well as the detection driving gear. The marker for color identification are detected correctly by directly transmitting the driving force from the driving source to the ribbon winding shaft at the detetion of the markers in the color ink ribbon.