An ink jet printer having a pressing mechanism for pressing a print head against a sheet of paper set on a platen by rotating an eccentric shaft, a driver for feeding the paper under the condition where the print head is in pressure contact with the paper to carry out cleaning of the print head, a photosensor for detecting whether or not the paper is present at a printable position, and an eject controller for ejecting the paper after carrying out test printing of a plurality of predetermined characters on the paper when the sufficient remaining paper is detected after ending the cleaning of the head or, alternatively, ejecting the paper without carrying out the test printing when it is determined there is insufficient paper detected after ending the cleaning of the head.