PURPOSE: To omit the wastefulness of constitution and to reduce cost without deteriorating an image by controlling the drive mode of each printing head on the basis of the content of a detachable memory means corresponding to each printing head.

CONSTITUTION: A CPU 312 is connected to a shading correction circuit 303, a logarithmic conversion part 304, a color correction circuit 305 and a density irregularity correction circuit 308 to set various conditions. Further, the CPU 312 is connected to an ROM 313 storing an operating program and an RAM 314 storing various set values to perform the execution control of the programs. Further, the CPU 312 is connected to an IC card interface 316 and can read the data of an IC card 317 being a memory means. Further, ROMs 30Y, 30M, 30C, 30K storing the serial numbers of recording heads 100Y, 100M, 100C, 100K are provided to the recording heads and the serial numbers can be read by the CPU 312. The serial numbers and characteristic data of the recording heads are inputted to the IC card 317.