PURPOSE: To reduce the number of times of returns of a print head and to sufficiently improve a printing speed by providing print control means for reading a developed dot pattern by a vertical width unit in which the head can print by one feeding irrespective of presence/absence of a control code to drive the head.

CONSTITUTION: A CPU 31 groups print data of a reception buffer 4 according to the same character size, characters of the same line, forms a character list of a data structure in which data of font pointer, etc., are added, for indicating an x coordinate, a y coordinate, a height of the character, a width of the character, a printing position of font data, and stores it in an input buffer 5. Then, the CPU 31 develops a dot pattern of a vertical width or more such as the same width as that of a vertical axis which is printable by a print head on the basis of a character list of the buffer 5, and stores it in a frame buffer 6. The CPU 31 reads a dot pattern from the buffer 6, and supplies it to a printer driver 7. The driver 7 drives a printer part 8 having a printing head, a drive motor for feeding and driving a carrier, etc.