To provide a printer capable of detecting near end of rolled paper without providing a special sensor, in the printer having a sensor detecting a black mark formed on the rolled paper.

Based on a command sent from a host computer 100 or manual operation of a DIP switch 16 by a user, a flag indicating a black mark identification mode of the rolled paper is read out from a flash ROM 102 and is set in a RAM 103. When the black mark is detected by the sensor 18, a CPU 101 refers to the flag set in the RAM 103, determines whether the black mark is a cut identification mark or a near end identification mark, refers to a control data stored in the flash ROM 102 in accordance with the determination result, and informs the host computer 100 and the user of cut or near end of the rolled paper.