A miniaturized printer wherein the duration of each print cycle, the sequence of printing operations performed in each print cycle and the time between each print cycle is controlled by a detecting arrangement. The detecting arrangement is adapted to detect the rotary position of a plurality of print rings having print characters circumferentially disposed therearound and for generating a character selection timing pulse for each of the available rotational positions of each print ring during a print cycle. The rotational position of each print ring corresponds to a print character circumferentially disposed about the print ring and, to this end, a print selection mechanism associated with each of the print rings selectively positions each of the print rings at respective predetermined print positions during each print cycle in response to the character selection timing pulses produced by the detection arrangement so that printing can be performed thereby. The detecting arrangement is further constructed and arranged to produce a stand-by signal representative of each print ring being positioned at a stand-by position at the end of each print cycle. The detecting arrangement further includes a shutter mechanism for preventing the detecting arrangement from producing a stand-by signal until a predetermined interval of time after the last of the character selection timing pulses are generated during each print cycle.