A printing apparatus having a carrier which reciprocates along a print line defined on a platen, comprising a first printing assembly supported on the carrier and having type elements abuttable on the platen for printing characters, and a second printing assembly supported on the carrier for printing characters by a dot matrix. The first and second printing assemblies have a first and second print point, respectively, which are spaced from each other in a direction parallel or perpendicular to the print line. Each print assembly has its own ribbon cassette; one is parallel to the print line and one is perpendicular to the print line.