The ink jet printer media advance system is required to be exactly driven to the target position via tracking the reference velocity profile to obtain the high quality print image. A single gain PID controller is not sufficient to fulfill the control objectives, the exact velocity tracking and the accurate positioning, at the same time. A dual PID controller and its switching strategy are presented in this paper to achieve the control objectives. The media advance system is controlled by two separate PID controllers, one of which is for velocity control, and the other is for position control. A PID controller controls the velocity of the media advance system until it reaches the predetermined switching position. When the media advance system passes the predetermined position, the controller is switched to the other PID controller which is more profitable for exact positioning. The switching position is determined by the estimated stop distance. The simulation and experimental results are presented to show the validity and effectiveness of the proposed controller.