Abstract: A printer of the wire type including 8 print wires disposed in a row and each actuatable by an electromagnet for printing individual characters defined by eight dots high and seven dots wide on a longitudinally movable ticket medium. The printing mechanism is also capable of printing fractions including numerators defined by the top six print wires and denominators defined by the bottom six wires together with a diagonally extending slash mark the printed dots of which lie within the seven dot wide character areas and a three dots wide normally blank area between characters. The printing mechanism may be so controlled either by a hardware embodiment of control or a micro controller.