To improve printing speed.

In a printer, a carriage mounted with a printing head scans horizontally in a width direction of a recording paper to print every predetermined number of dots at each scanning. A pickup lever for actuating a paper supply operation is set, and a next paper is supplied by pressing the pickup lever by the carriage. The printer is provided with a CPU. A printing region is divided for each scanning by analyzing printing data by the CPU. A printing width to be printed by one scan of the carriage is changed on the basis of the analysis result so that the carriage scans in a direction to be able to press the pickup lever in a forward direction. Accordingly, the next paper is supplied at a predetermined position of the paper being printed without running the carriage idly.