PRINTER RIBBON FEED

A printer having a printhead which moves from left to right across the document to print a line and a ribbon located between the printing end of the printhead and the document. Ribbon supply means is provided at the right side of the document, ribbon take-up means is provided at the left side of the document and means for engaging the ribbon when the printhead moves from right to left is mounted on the printhead. During a printing operation with left-to-right movement of the printhead, the ribbon remains stationary and is traversed by the printhead. This provides a new area of the ribbon for printing each character. When the printhead returns to the left to begin a new line, printing does not occur and the engaging means connected to the printhead pulls the ribbon from the supply means. The resulting slack in the ribbon is taken up at the left side of the document by the take-up means and when the printhead reaches the left margin a new supply of ribbon has been provided for printing the next line. Since the printhead prints when moving toward the right, its velocity is slower in this direction. Preferably, the engaging means is fractionally operable to engage the ribbon at the higher speed during leftward movement but slides with respect to the ribbon at the slower velocity during rightward movement.