The invention relates to a printing device with at least two working areas spatially separated from each other, each of which has a separate advance device (34, 36; 42, 44) for a printing pattern (28, 30; 41) assigned to the corresponding working area, with at least one printing head (16) and a carrier (14) which can be displaced crosswise along the direction of the printed line on the working area of the printing head (16) and is mounted on the printing head (16) in such a way that it can be displaced between the working positions assigned to the working areas. The printing head (16) is an ink printing head that may be displaced on the carrier (14) in an inoperative position differing from the working positions and that may be displaced together with the carrier (14) in the direction of the printed lines between a printing station encompassing the working area and a maintenance station (46) located outside the working area.