A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting head having a pressure chamber communicating with a nozzle opening and a pressure generator capable of causing pressure fluctuation to liquid in the pressure chamber, the liquid ejecting head causing pressure fluctuation to the liquid in the pressure chamber by driving the pressure generator, and discharging the liquid from the nozzle opening due to the pressure fluctuation, and a driver that supplies a discharge pulse to the pressure generator to drive the pressure generator. The discharge pulse that the driver generates includes a preliminary contracting element that contracts the pressure chamber without discharging a liquid droplet, a holding element that maintains the voltage at the end of the preliminary contracting element for a predetermined amount of time, a preliminary expanding element that changes the voltage so as to expand the pressure chamber to pull in the meniscus, and a discharging element that changes the voltage so as to contract the expanded pressure chamber to discharge a liquid droplet. The duration of the preliminary contracting element is set to the natural vibration period Tc of the pressure chamber or more, and the duration from the beginning of the preliminary contracting element to the end of the holding element is set to three times the natural vibration period Tc.