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With this newer medium, the entire impacted area of the pigment coating adheres to the paper and transfers from the ribbon, producing typed copy with greater uniformity of character shape, reflecting a sharper contrast between the unmarked paper and the pigmented characters compared to cloth ribbons.
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Another alternative design omits the spools, and simply stuffs inked ribbon into a plastic box through a narrow vertical slot, pulling it out the other end as needed. The box and ribbon are proportioned to avoid tangling inside the box. The ends of the ribbon are joined in an endless loop, so that a
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Thus, the full length of the ribbon shuttles back and forth between reels, and each position along it is struck twice in each cycle of the ribbon's motion (once in the right-to-left phase and once in the left-to-right). This process can proceed indefinitely, until a depleting ink supply causes the
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Some typewriter ribbons have two different colored pigments (usually black and red) running in parallel along the length of the ribbon. These ribbons are used with typewriters which have a selection lever ("bichrome ribbon switch") to slightly raise or lower the ribbon, so the typebars will print
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However, the full-depth transfer of the pigment renders multiple passes over the same length of the ribbon unworkable, so the assembly is discarded after a single pass through its length. Because polymer tape is much thinner and more easily tangled than cloth ribbon, it usually is packaged in an
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An alternative design encloses two pre-threaded spools within a single disposable ribbon cartridge, eliminating the need to manually thread a messy ink ribbon. Cartridge designs are often used with higher-speed automatic printers, or ribbons with multiple inks used for color printing. Heavy-duty
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reel whose hub engages with one of the axles. Only the axle onto which the ribbon is winding is driven, and the ribbon assembly is intended to work with an axle-driving mechanism that reverses the direction of rotation when the undriven axle reaches the point where there is almost no ribbon left
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around one axle or the other, tight enough for friction among turns to make it behave mostly like a solid cylinder. Rotation of the axles moves the ribbon or tape after each impact and usually aids in maintaining tension along the roughly straight-line path of the medium between the axles. The
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An operator who judges a ribbon's ink supply to be too depleted typically manually winds the whole ribbon onto the fuller reel, releasing it from the empty one, and discarding the ribbon and the reel it is wound on. It is replaced with a new ribbon that is purchased already wound on a single
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Deducing what has been typed by inspection of the used ribbon is far more practicable and reliable than with a cloth ribbon, so some users ensure secure destruction (shredding) of discarded one-time ribbons in order to prevent unintended disclosure of typed documents.
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at each end of the ribbon that pierces the ribbon and engages with a hook on the hub of the corresponding reel. There often is a small grommet or eyelet near each end of the ribbon, which activates an automatic ribbon-reversal feature of the ribbon-advance mechanism.
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There were many different schemes to supply ink to early typewriters, including ink-soaked rollers, ink pads, and rubberized cloth strips. Eventually, ink ribbons emerged as the de facto standard method of supplying ink for impact printers of all types.
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Ink-depleted fabric ribbons can be re-inked to allow re-use, but this may be a messy procedure; many used fabric ribbons are instead discarded, along with the spool which they were wound around, or as part of a cartridge assembly. The
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width of typewriter ribbons is 0.5 inches (13 mm), but some ribbon spools are no longer manufactured, requiring owners of vintage machines to re-ink used ribbons and/or to re-spool new ribbon onto their vintage spools.
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assembly may itself include mechanisms that control the tension in the temporarily unwound portion of the medium, or the typewriter/printer ribbon-advance mechanism may control the tension.
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typed characters to become unacceptably faint. Reversal of the ribbon was often controlled manually in early machines, but automatic reversal mechanisms became popular later.
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ribbon reversing mechanism is not needed. Some of these spool-less cartridge designs make a half-twist in the ribbon before joining it up into a loop, resulting in a
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required ribbons of polymer (plastic) tape and popularized their use, even with other manufacturers. This type of ribbon is sometimes called a "carbon ribbon".
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tape, and a transport mechanism involving two axles. At any given moment, most of the length of the medium is wound as a close-spaced
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The prototypical assembly consists of a length of a medium, either pigment-impregnated woven ribbon or pigment-coated
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may use wider ink ribbons, ranging up to the full width of a 132-column printout, nominally 14 inches (360 mm).
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enclosed cartridge with two spools, eliminating the need to manually thread a delicate ribbon onto an empty spool.
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This produces a clearer, easier-to-read printed image which looks more "professional" in printed documents.
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74:. Thousands of varieties of ink ribbons and ribbon cartridges have been produced, and are available from
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is an expendable assembly serving the function of transferring pigment to paper in various devices for
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Woven fabric typewriter ribbons were the first kind to be developed. With them, the pigment is an
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that dries on typing paper but not on the ribbon, and the ribbon is mounted at each end to a
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compatible reel. Typically the attachment between reel and ribbon involves one
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A typewriter ribbon with black ink in a mechanical typewriter
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Large ink ribbon cartridge installed in a dot-matrix printer
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Four-color fabric ribbon cartridge for a dot-matrix printer
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Spool-less ink ribbon cartridge with and without cover
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Ribbon cartridge with internal spools (cover removed)
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Wide ink ribbon can be seen at right of this opened
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Pigment-impregnated tape used in printing and typing
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423:"How to Reink a Typewriter Ribbon (with Pictures)"
50:. Since such assemblies were first widely used on
345:"Getting the Most out of your Typewriter Ribbons"
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272:Used polymer ribbon reveals what has been typed
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248:Typewriter ribbon cartridge with polymer tape
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370:"Buying a Typewriter: What You Need to Know"
888:The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
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421:Ovsepyan, Garnik (February 15, 2022).
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260:Ribbon cartridge with cover removed
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451:"Basic Typewriter Restoration"
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617:Sholes and Glidden typewriter
343:Scheong (22 September 2012).
216:Single-pass (polymer) ribbons
103:Multi-strike (fabric) ribbons
571:Underwood Typewriter Company
398:"Frequently Asked Questions"
368:Scheong (27 December 2012).
867:Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing
856:Boston Typewriter Orchestra
536:Imperial Typewriter Company
455:The Classic Typewriter Page
402:The Classic Typewriter Page
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99:either color, as desired.
592:Blickensderfer typewriter
541:Oliver Typewriter Company
54:, they were often called
873:Repetitive strain injury
551:Royal Typewriter Company
222:IBM Selectric typewriter
68:computer-driven printers
828:Speech-to-text reporter
643:Lucien Stephen Crandall
521:Commodore International
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72:mechanical calculators
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693:Lyman Cornelius Smith
688:James Fields Smathers
663:Rasmus Malling-Hansen
526:E. Remington and Sons
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883:Speed typing contest
673:John Jonathon Pratt
607:Hansen Writing Ball
597:Data Recall Diamond
683:Christopher Sholes
622:Olivetti Valentine
602:Hammond Typewriter
374:Throughout History
349:Throughout History
300:. You can help by
132:wound around it.
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56:typewriter ribbons
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792:Typewriter eraser
636:Prominent figures
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167:de facto standard
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16:(Redirected from
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893:Touch typing
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847:Cultural and
833:Stenographer
813:Audio typist
781:
767:Carbon paper
566:Smith Corona
561:Silver Seiko
458:. Retrieved
454:
430:. Retrieved
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405:. Retrieved
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377:. Retrieved
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352:. Retrieved
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302:adding to it
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210:line printer
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159:Mobius strip
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60:teleprinters
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44:inked ribbon
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914:Typewriters
838:Typesetting
808:Copy typist
801:Occupations
760:Accessories
627:Hermes 3000
502:Typewriters
149:high-speed
82:Description
78:suppliers.
70:, and many
52:typewriters
782:Ink ribbon
717:Components
668:Henry Mill
460:2023-04-08
432:2023-04-08
407:2023-04-08
379:2023-04-08
354:2023-04-08
325:References
309:April 2023
76:stationery
66:machines,
40:ink ribbon
823:Secretary
64:stenotype
908:Category
878:Samizdat
546:Olivetti
208:IBM 1403
516:Brother
427:wikiHow
281:History
142:grommet
129:flanged
88:polymer
751:Platen
744:QWERTZ
739:QWERTY
734:Dvorak
729:AZERTY
585:Models
92:spiral
576:Xerox
556:Sharp
220:The
531:IBM
304:.
125:ink
42:or
38:An
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