PURPOSE: To reduce a manufacturing cost and to improve the detection accuracy of the absence or presence of an ink.

CONSTITUTION: An ink jet recorder 1 is equipped with a carriage 3 that is reciprocally scanned along a sliding shaft 5. A plurality of ink cartridges 12 are detachably loaded on the carriage 3 such that at least one end section of each of them is observed from the outside and a plurality of ink jet heads 2 are mounted thereon corresponding to the respective ink cartridges 12. On a movement start position of the carriage 3, caps 16 are provided opposing to the ink jet heads, respectively so as to prevent orifices of the ink jet heads from drying. On a home position, a sensor 30 for detecting the presence or absence of an ink is provided in the vicinity of an under face of the ink cartridge 12 which is placed mostly near the printing position.