A printed matter inspection device includes a light source that irradiates a color printed matter as an inspection object with illuminating light, a detector that detects the quantity of reflected light of each of a plurality of different color light beams from among reflected light reflected by the inspection object, and a controller that controls a timing of acquiring a detection signal of each of the color light beams from the detector. The controller acquires a detection signal of selected one of the different color light beams for one of a plurality of non-print areas on the inspection object. The controller acquires a detection signal of newly selected one of the different color light beams for another one of the non-print areas.