SERIAL PRINTER

PURPOSE:To prevent a recording material support part or the back side of the next recording material from being contaminated, by inhibiting recording when the absence of a recording material is detected by a recording materialdetecting means. CONSTITUTION:In the case of receiving recording data from a host device 14, the recorded data is analyzed, and when a recording-starting instruction is provided, the left and right end positions in the received recording data are calculated. Further, the shortest of the distances of the left and right end positions from the current starting position of a carriage 3 are calculated. A carriage 3 is moved to the end position corresponding to the shortest distance, and is moved to a recording position, and the presence or absence of a sheet on the front side of a recording head is detected by a sheet detector 2. When the sheet is absent, recording data read from a RAM 13 is converted into white data, which is transferred to a head controller 18. Next, when recording by scanning is not finished, the carriage 3 is further moved, followed by sheet detection by the sheet detector 2, and when recording is finished, the next process is started. Since recording by the recording head is inhibited when the absence of the recording material is detected, it is possible to prevent a recording material support part of a printer, the back side of the recording material or the like from being contaminated.