One-time Ribbons
The IBM Selectric typewriter required ribbons of polymer tape and made them common. With them, the entire impacted area of the pigment coating adheres to the paper and peels off of the ribbon, producing typed copy with greater uniformity of character shape, reflecting sharper contrast between the unmarked paper and the pigmented characters compared to cloth ribbons. This full-depth shedding of the pigment renders multiple passes over the length of the ribbon unworkable, and the module is discarded after a single pass through its length. (Incidentally, deducing what has been typed by inspection of the ribbon is far more practicable and reliable than with a cloth ribbon, and some users ensure destruction of discarded one-time ribbons in order to prevent unintended disclosure.)
Read more about this topic: Typewriter Ribbon
Famous quotes containing the word ribbons:
“After your baby arrives, you yourself may feel like something of a present, albeit clumsy, wrapped in unmatched ribbons and bows, but new. Untried. Untested.”
—Sally Placksin (20th century)