Glossary
printhead wear The degradation of the surface of the printhead and/or the print elements over time. Heat and abrasion can cause printhead wear. Therefore, to maximize the life of your printhead use the lowest print darkness setting (sometimes called burn temperature or head tempera- ture) and the lowest printhead/toggle pressure necessary. Also, use ribbon that is as wide as or wider than the media to protect the printhead of the XiII printer from the rougher surface of the media.
registration Alignment of printing with respect to the top of a label/tag.
ribbon A band of inked material that is pressed against the media and heated to transfer an image onto the media, which in turn is pressed against the platen. A ribbon consists of a base film coated with wax or resin “ink”. Zebra ribbons also have a back coating that protects the printhead from damage.
ribbon wrinkle A wrinkling of the ribbon caused by improper alignment of the strip plate and/or printhead pres- sure. This wrinkle can be seen just above the strip plate. Ribbon wrinkle can cause voids in the printing and/or it can cause the spent ribbon to rewind unevenly. Correct this condition by performing adjustment proce- dures.
roll media Media that comes supplied rolled up on a core (usually card- board). Contrast this with fanfold media, which comes folded in a rectangular stack.
supplies A general term for ribbon and media.
tag A type of media having no adhesive backing but featuring a hole or notch by which the tag can be hung on something. Usually tags are made of cardboard or other durable material.
take label sensor See “label available sensor”.
thermal direct printing See “direct ther-mal printing”.
thermal transfer printing A printing method in which the printhead heats an ink- or
“void” A space where printing should have occurred but, due to some error condition, it did not occur. A void can cause a bar code symbol to be read incorrectly or to not be read at all.
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