PURPOSE: To enable to constantly print clearly at high speed, by a method wherein the velocity of a carriage is changed on the basis of a feeding quantity of a ribbon according to the kind of characters to be printed, and spacing velocity is determined on the basis of the result of the change.

CONSTITUTION: A spacing velocity is changed so that a carriage is moved to a printing position immediately after the preparatory movement of an ink ribbon for subsequent printing is completed. When the carriage is moved, a hammer is driven to print constantly through a fresh part of the ink ribbon. The position of the carriage is detected in terms of an angle θ by a transducer 3, and then the detected angle θ is amplified by an amplifier 4. The detected angle θ is differentiated by a differentiator 5 to obtain an angular velocity θ', and a motor 2 is driven through a contact on the upper side of a switching circuit 7 and an amplifier 8 so that the angular velocity θ' becomes equal to a predetermined velocity signal outputted from a D/A converter 6. By controlling the spacing velocity of the carriage, constantly clear flying printing can be performed.