Patent ID: 8152272

Claim:
A printer comprising: an inkjet head comprising a plurality of nozzles for discharging ink; a holding member configured to hold a print medium to be printed on; a moving mechanism configured to move at least one of the holding member and the inkjet head so as to move the inkjet head relative to the holding member in a main scanning direction and a sub scanning direction for printing by the inkjet head on the print medium; a flushing area setting unit configured to set a flushing printing area for flushing printing executed to prevent clogging of the nozzles, inside a printable area and outside a pattern printing area of the print medium for pattern printing, wherein the flushing area setting unit comprises: a judging unit configured to judge a relationship between the pattern printing area and the printable area, and a size reducing unit configured to reduce the size of the pattern printing area when the judging unit judges that the pattern printing area is substantially equal to the printable area; and a print control unit configured to control the inkjet head and the moving mechanism to execute the flushing printing in the flushing printing area and the pattern printing in the pattern printing area.