An ink jet printer and control method therefor efficiently eliminates temporary ink eject defects during print interruptions. A time interval, i.e., the time lapse between a previous ink ejecting operation and a present ink ejecting operation, is evaluated before printing. If the time interval is less than a first time reference value (t1), an ink purging operation is not performed or is performed only a first minimum number of times. If the time interval is between first and second time reference values (t1.ltoreq.TI