a case in which the load of the display panel 20 is heavy that is the average intensity of priming driver 22 b being used for generating a priming pulse in a case in which the load of the display panel 20 is light that is the average intensity of images to be displayed on the pdp is low an image load judgment section 25 a provided in the circuit controller 25 controls the priming drivers 22 a 22 b that is the image load judgment section 25 a judges whether the average intensity of images to be displayed on the pdp is high other circuits of the present invention are same as that of the conventional pdp fig7 and fig8 show the drive waveforms in this embodiment fig7 shows the drive waveforms in the case of a heavy display load and fig8 shows the drive waveforms in the case of a light display load period 1 is the priming period during which the priming pulse ppr s is applied to the scanning electrodes s and a waveform thereof is a saw toothed waveform and the priming pulse ppr c is applied to the sustaining electrodes c and a waveform thereof is a rectangular waveform the voltage of the priming pulses ppr s applied in this case is controlled based on image load information 26 a judged by the image load judgment section 25 a of fig6 a so that prescribed amount of wall charge is attached to the scanning electrodes s and the sustaining electrodes c in accordance with the state of the load as shown in fig7 in the case of a heavy.