ribbon

ribbon relatively narrow width of woven fabric edged with selvage. Ribbons have been used for centuries as girdles, headdresses, and badges and for ornamentation. At first called ribbands, they were narrow strips of cloth which were attached to a garment to form borders. The modern ribbon with two selvages was known after 1500; at first it was reserved for the wealthy. In the 17th cent. ribbons were highly fashionable and were used profusely on every part of the costume. The blue and red ribbons, which have since become awards of merit, at first indicated the Orders of the Garter and the Bath, respectively, in England. The French Legion of Honor is symbolized by a watered red ribbon and a medal .

ribbon.
1. Any ribbon-like strip of decoration, or a riband.

2. Lead came around the pieces of glass in a leaded window.

3. Representations of ribbons binding festoons, garlands, trophies, wreaths, etc.

4. Light timber fixed to the faces of studs forming a continuous tie around the building and supporting the ends of beams in US balloon-frame timber construction.

ribbon
1. The means by which an impact printer forms the printed characters on the top copy of printer stationery, ink being transferred from ribbon to paper. The characteristics of a ribbon depend mainly on the printer for which it is intended. There may however be two or three varieties of ribbon available for one printer type, depending for example on whether maximum utilization of the ribbon (and thus minimum ribbon cost) is important at the expense of print quality, or vice versa. Color variety is available.

Ribbon materials are normally nylon fabric, in various thicknesses and thread types, or polyester film. Fabric is soaked with ink, film is coated with ink-bearing wax. Thinner fabrics give better print quality, usually at the expense of ribbon life. Nylon ribbons can be continually reused until print quality is unacceptable due to ink depletion. The printer recycles such a ribbon continuously, either by use of a continuous loop or by reversing it at each end. With film ribbons a much greater proportion of the ink is transferred at each strike, leading to shorter ribbon life. They can however provide much better print quality than fabric ribbons. Degree of inking in a ribbon is a carefully controlled parameter.

Ribbon dimensions depend on the printer type. Wide ‘towel’ ribbons may be up to 17 wide, and travel vertically through the printer. Narrow ribbons, 0.2–2 wide, traverse across the printing area. Narrow fabric ribbons may be on open spools or contained in purpose-designed cartridges to facilitate ribbon handling. All narrow film ribbons are in cartridges. Fabric ribbons in cartridges are often ‘stuffed’ (packed in concertina fashion) in continuous loops rather than being on spools.

Thermal transfer printers also require a ribbon, in this case a film ribbon coated with a thermoplastic or wax-based ink.

2. In some graphical applications, a horizontal row of control icons that can often be redefined to suit the user's requirements.