PURPOSE: To enhance the accuracy of a printing position in multicolor printing by excluding the reverse feed of recording paper by changing over printing operation corresponding to printing data.

CONSTITUTION: A plurality of printing operation modes are changed over on the basis of the printing data of both of a line to be processed and the previous line to perform multicolor printing by printing head having a cyan nozzle group Ck, a magenta nozzle group Mk and an yellow nozzle group Yk arranged in parallel to black nozzle groups Bk0, Bk1, Bk2 so as to continue in a longitudinal direction. By this constitution, the reverse feed of recording paper is excluded and the accuracy of a printing position is enhanced.