To provide a color ink jet printer capable of reducing a quantity of ink ejected by priming in such a manner that ejection nozzles for a non-used color is capped even during the operation of printing.
A paper sheet 34 is inserted from a lower section to be conveyed in the left side by being attracted to a conveyance belt 35 and is reversed by a following roller 33. After that, the paper sheet 34 is printed by passing through a platen 31 to be discharged to the outside. In the case of monochrome printing, a color print head unit 22 is moved to a maintenance position at the left side by a sliding mechanism 29 and is covered with a cap member 26 for the color print head unit 22 to be stopped and then a black color print head unit 21 is positioned opposite the platen 31 to form a black color image on the paper sheet 34. During the printing, the priming of the color print head unit 22 is not executed. In the case of color printing, the black color print head 21 and the color print head unit 22 are supported by head unit holders 23, 24 to be positioned opposite the platen 31 and then a full-color image is formed on the paper sheet 34 by inks of yellow, cyan, magenta and black colors ejected from the print heads.
OTA MASANORI
OSUGI NAOHIRO
