Patent ID: 8141976

Claim:
A printing control method for a serial inkjet printer, comprising: a recording medium width determination step of determining if a width of a recording medium is greater than or equal to a width of a vacuum area widthwise to a vacuum platen that has the vacuum area for pulling the recording medium thereto; a printing step of printing to the recording medium while moving an inkjet head widthwise to the vacuum platen; a head retracting step of moving the inkjet head so that an ink nozzle area of the inkjet head is positioned outside of a first retraction position or a second retraction position, which are respectively located a first distance outside of the recording medium from a first edge part or a second edge part of the recording medium widthwise to the vacuum platen; and a recording medium transportation step that conveys the recording medium in a direction perpendicular to a width of the vacuum platen; wherein the head retracting step is performed after the printing step and prior to the recording medium transportation step when the width of the recording medium is narrower than the width of the vacuum area; and wherein the head retracting step is not performed when the width of the recording medium is greater than or equal to the width of the vacuum area.