Ribbons

Anyone reading this remember when printers used ribbons? I've been keeping an old Okidata printer going for close to twenty years. It's not our primary printer but we occassionally produce mailing labels for a business that does mailings. We've been doing the labels starting with an Apple ][ computer and a printer that didn't have a fontt with true descenders. The Oki is the second or third printer. We took the labels through several transitions too. From an Apple data base into CP/M Dbasr II and then Dbase III and migration to PC platform in the mid eighties.

The labels now exist in Microsoft Access and the Oki keeps going. I've scrounged a couple of extra print heads just in case. Today I was out in the backyard unrolling a couple of feet of ribbon and misting it lightly with WD40. Roll it up and repeat for the who length. Tonight for over two hours the office was filled with the clatter of one-up labels feeding under the roar of the printhead.

After the job was done the monster printer was packed away again and the Laser printer reconnected. Ah, the old days.

G