ImageWriter LQ: Printing on Entire Ribbon

I have an Apple ImageWriter LQ printer that prints only on the top portion
of the black ribbon. According to the manual, the ribbon assembly should
shift up and down for an even use of the black ribbon. When the printer is
first turned on, the ribbon mechanism shifts down and stays there.

I discovered that when the ribbon is not in the printer, the assembly does
shift. When should the shift occur with a black ribbon? What triggers the
shift?

The ImageWriter LQ with the 2.0 driver prints on all four bands of the
ribbon on multi-page documents; it should use all bands equally. It moves
up through the different bands on each page, so if you print multiple
one-page documents, it may stay on the top band. Make sure that you do not
turn off the printer between print jobs. This resets the ribbon to the top
band.

Published Date: Feb 18, 2012