Patent ID: 7588379

Claim:
A method of controlling a drive motor that is provided to a printer to apply a driving force to a predetermined operation section that prints an image on a printing sheet, comprising the steps of: measuring, in an initialization operation in which no image is printed on the printing sheet, an initial operation time of the predetermined operation section by driving initially the drive motor to operate the operation section from a first predetermined position to a second predetermined position; driving, in an image printing operation of forming an image on the printing sheet, the drive motor with a first non-zero output from an operation start time to a time calculated by multiplying the measured initial operation time by a coefficient that is larger than 0 but smaller than 1; and driving, until an operation end time after the drive motor is driven with the first output, the drive motor with a second non-zero output that is equal to or less than the first output and is determined as a function of the measured initial operation time.