PURPOSE: To safely and surely protect a printer by counting continuously cut sheets of recording paper and controlling the time from the end of cutting operation to the next cutting operation during continuous cutting in accordance with the number of cut sheets to suppress the overrise of the temperature of a motor.

CONSTITUTION: A roll of recording paper is printed by a printing head 16, and thereafter, the recording paper is cut by a cutter unit 18 and is ejected. The cutter unit 18 is provided with sensors 18a and 18b, a cutter which cuts the recording paper, and a DC motor 18c which drives the cutter. A system control part 11 uses a number counting means and a control means to count the continuously cut sheets of recording paper. The time from the end of cutting operation to the next cutting operation during continuous cutting is controlled in accordance with the number of sheets counted by the number counting means so that the temperature rise of the DC motor 18c is suppressed to a rated value or lower.