A serial type ink jet printing apparatus for textile printing sets a print beginning position and a print ending position so that the space between the print beginning position and the print ending position is wider than the textile printing medium. When the printing operation is performed, a small amount of ink is discharged from an ink jet head onto a textile support member before the head reaches the textile printing medium, by which ink with high viscosity can be exhausted in a continuous printing operation before printing on the textile. Therefore, the textile can be efficiently printed entirely from edge to edge with high quality, and a separate ink receiver for receiving the preliminarily discharged ink is rendered unnecessary.