PURPOSE: To surely record and to reduce the prolongation of communication time by deciding whether reception picture is stored without the overflow of a picture memory at the time of the termination of the reception of one page, immediately performing a positive response to a transmission side when it is stored and performing a positive response when a right recording can be performed by executing a recording operation previously when it is not stored.

CONSTITUTION: When the reception for one page is terminated, the presence or absence of a data error is judged. At the time of the absence, the presence or absence of the overflow of a picture memory 4 is judged and a positive response is immediately performed to a transmission side at the time of the absence. In the case of the presence at this stage, the positive response is performed when the one page can be recorded to the last by waiting till the recording termination by monitoring the operation state of a plotter 2 when it is capable of operating. In other cases except this, negative responses are performed and other prescribed operations are made to move. Thus, the prolongation of the communication time is reduced and the page picture for which a positive response was performed can be surely recorded and outputted.