PURPOSE: To achieve the miniaturization and cost reduction of a printer by simplify the structure of the printer.

CONSTITUTION: A platen roller 8 supporting a tape to be printed and an ink tape is provided to a printer body 1 and a thermal printing head 9 opposed to the tape 18 to be printed and ink tape supported by the platen roller 8 to change to two states of a abutment state and a non-abutment state is provided to the printer body in a freely revolvable manner. Two states of the thermal printing head 9 to the tape to be printed and the ink tape are changed over by the manual operation of an operation lever 25 and, in such a state that the thermal printing head 9 is made to abut on the tape to be printed and the ink tape by the operation lever 25, the thermal printing head 9 is pressed to the tape to be printed and the ink tape by a second coil spring 28.