How to Differentiate Correctable Ribbons and Lift-Off Tapes

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How to Differentiate Correctable Ribbons and Lift-Off Tapes

If you’re familiar with using a typewriter to type out a document or just typing on your computer, you would have experienced some cases whereby you have made spelling mistakes on your document.

Is it Difficult to Correct Mistakes on Manual Typewriters?

The answer for that is “yes”.

Traditionally, when you are using a manual typewriter and if you have made a mistake on typewriting, it would require you to restart typewriting from the scratch. Fortunately, there are several applications that we can use to erase those typewriter mistakes, such as through the use of correctable ribbons and lift off tape.

It can be rather common to mistake correctable ribbons and lift-off tapes as being the same thing because of their similar purpose. Both correctable ribbons and lift-off tapes are beneficial and easy to use on correcting typewriting errors. Today we will be looking into these two imaging consumable products to tell them apart.

What is a Correctable Ribbon?

As its name suggests, a correctable ribbon is an ink ribbon that comes with a clear plastic ribbon with black ink coating layered on it. A correctable ribbon is significantly different from a lift-off tape, as you type the correctable ribbon will transfer the ink coating onto the typewritten paper.

When it comes to using correctable ribbons, it is easy to use because you can actually see every single letter you have typed as punched out letters visible on the clear correctable ribbon strip.

What is a Lift-Off Tape?

As its name implies, a lift-off tape is meant to pull the typewritten ink coating back off the paper page. When you hit backspace on the manual typewriting, you will activate the lift-off ribbon. Then, proceed to hit the same key again. The lift-off tape will pull the letter off the page. You can easily notice each letter you have removed because the typos will stay stuck on the surface of the lift-off tape.

Generally, there are two types of lift-off tape you can come across, both of which feature a sticky surface that can be either dry or wet. A dry lift-off tape will not feel sticky around your fingers as compared to a wet lift-off tape.

These two types of lift-off tape can be easily distinguished by the color of their spools. For dry lift-off tapes, their color spools will be orange in color; for wet lift-off tapes, the spools will be yellow in color.

Conclusion

Overall, it is important to note the significance of lift-off tapes and the roles they play in the typewriting process. Perhaps now you have developed a newfound sense of appreciation towards lift off tape and how they help to amend mistakes when using typewriters.

If you’re looking for a lift off tape supplier, Omnimetric Technologies Sdn Bhd is one of the leading manufacturers that produces high quality and practical lift off tapes as well as typewriter ribbons to their clients in Asia Countries, Europe, Australia, North and South America and etc. Omnimetric Technologies Sdn Bhd also specializes in their selection of imaging consumable products such as ink rollers, cash register ribbons and even thermal transfer ribbons.