To shorten the time required for printing by controlling a recording head to eject ink to a region other than that of a recording medium in a print time moving region when flushing operation for ejecting ink is performed during print processing regardless of the content being printed.

Since an unused nozzle of an ink jet recorder can cause clogging during print operation, flushing operation is executed upon elapsing a specified time after starting print operation to eject ink from all nozzles of a recording head 6 regardless of the content being printed. The ink jet recorder is set with a region for performing overflow printing on a tape 1 even in the constant speed region of a carriage 4, and a preliminary region. More specifically, the carriage 4 reciprocates a print region projecting from a tape width detected at a tape width detecting section plus the preliminary region and an acceleration/deceleration region during print operation.