Is it time for a new typewriter ribbon? - London Typewriters (2024)

FAQs

When to replace typewriter ribbon? ›

The ribbons last a long time, but they do eventually wear out. You'll know that it's time to replace your typewriter ribbon when the ink begins to wear thin.

From my personal experience, a ribbon normally lasts 9 to 12 months with light to medium usage. As there is a finite amount of ink inside the ribbon, the more you type, the more of the ink is transferred from the ribbon to the paper, and thus the ribbon has a shorter lifespan.

We have the original style cotton typewriter ribbons, on twin metal spools, for many vintage and antique typewriters such as Underwood, Remington, Royal, LC Smith & Corona, Olympia, Woodstock and others. We also sell ribbons for more modern typewriters by IBM, Smith Corona, Brother, Panasonic, Sharp and Xerox.

The ink ribbon is the part of the typewriter that transfers ink from the ribbon onto the paper, and over time, the ink ribbon can become worn or dry, making it difficult to write legibly.

While the exact shelf life of a ribbon or cleaning kit will vary by manufacture, we generally recommend keeping supplies for no more than one year. As they age, printer ribbons get frail and are more likely to rip or tear during the printing process.

Nylon is a good durable material and most ribbons are made using nylon. It holds the ink well and gives a good impression and has a long life. Cotton is heavier and produces a dark, heavy print that appears slightly fuzzy and silk will give you a clean, crisp print.

They're Valuable

Over time, the value of your typewriter will rise. Some typewriters can go up for auction for $1,000 or even more. Many manual typewriters can be sold for thousands of dollars.

The best way is to know which kind of typewriter you're using. If it's a manual typewriter, then you go with a traditional red and black or just black ribbon. If it's an electric one, then you go for the ink cartridges.

What year did typewriters go out of style? ›

Typewriters were a standard fixture in most offices up to the 1980s. After that, they began to be largely supplanted by personal computers running word processing software. Nevertheless, typewriters remain common in some parts of the world.

3.1 There shall be two types of typewriter ribbons, namely: a) Type I — Single colour, black, purple or blue; and b) Type II — Bi-colour, black and red, blue and red ??? and red.

Some typewriter ribbons have two different coloured pigments (usually black and red) which could be selected if the typewriter had a switch to allow for words or sentences to be written in a different colour when required.

Antique vs Vintage Typewriters: How to Tell the Difference

Antique refers to items that are over 100 years old, while “vintage” refers to items that are between 20 and 99 years old. If your typewriter was manufactured earlier than the 1920s, it's probably considered antique.

1. General. Although a typewriter is a complicated piece of mechanical equipment, it can be said that rarely does the machine "wear out". Generally speaking these machines become so maladjusted that they cannot continue to produce satisfactory work until the adjustments are brought back to factory standards.

The ribbon moves around the spools each time that you clack a key: first from the left spool to the right, and after the left spool is empty and the right spool complete. Your typewriter ribbon may only run black ink, or it may have a red portion.