A printer for printing by a print head having a plurality of recording elements arranged, includes a scan unit for scanning the print head in a different direction from the direction of arrangement of the recording elements, a memory for storing print data, a write unit for writing the print data into the memory, and a read unit for reading the print data written in the memory in synchronism with the scan of the print head by the scan means for supplying the print data to the print head. The memory has continuous addresses relative to the arrangement of the print data corresponding to the direction of arrangement of the recording elements.