REWRITABLE CARD PRINTER WITH RETRACTABLE HEAD

摘要

A rewritable card printer having a retractable head. The head such as a magnetic read/write head is retracted whenever a rewritable card, not having feature recognizable by the head, is inserted into the rewritable card printer. The head is retractable to minimize wear on the head when the head is not in use. In a rewritable printer having multiple other heads, the other heads may by used to read from the rewritable card while the retractable head is retracted. If the other heads are incapable of reading the rewritable card, the retractable head is extend to read from the rewritable card.