The control unit of a printer feeds paper P from a paper supply path 12 to a main conveyance path, drives a paper feed roller pair, conveys the paper in a first direction through the main conveyance path, and prints on the first side of the paper. After printing on the first side ends, the conveyance direction changes from the first direction to the opposite second direction, and the medium is back-fed to a looped inverting conveyance path at a faster conveyance speed than the conveyance speed when printing. First and second conveyance rollers are then driven to convey the print medium at high speed through the inverting conveyance path, thereby inverting the front and back and returning the medium to the main conveyance path for printing the second side.