ENCODED PRINT RIBBON AND METHOD OF USING

摘要

A print ribbon has a flexible substrate (200) and transferrable ink (202) located on a portion of one of the first and second surfaces of the flexible substrate includes machine-readable indicia (B1-B23) on one of the first and second surfaces. The machine-readable indicia (B1-B23) can include a code pattern, with at least a portion of the code pattern indicating a value of a control setting to be used by a controller of a printing system using the print ribbon so that printing operation is performed using the control setting without retrieving the control setting from a storage device. The code pattern also can include a first pattern portion that indicates at least one control setting to be used by a printing mechanism to print with the print ribbon and a second pattern portion that indicates instructions for modifying the at least one control setting during the printing process.