(57) A thermal transfer printer including a platen, (1,2) a carriage (5) supported for
movement lengthwise of the platen, a ribbon cassette (7) removably mounted on to the
carriage (5), an inked ribbon (16) held in the ribbon cassette (7) and wound at opposite
end portions thereof on two ribbon cores (26,40), and a thermal head (15) supported
by the carriage (5) to force the inked ribbon (16) against a sheet of paper on the
platen (14). The inked ribbon has an upper printing zone and a lower printing zone
disposed in superposed relation one above the other in a direction perpendicular to
the direction in which the inked ribbon is moved. The ribbon cassette (7) is turned
over after one of the upper and lower printing zones has been used to perform printing
of characters, symbols, etc., and mounted to the carriage again to continue the printing
by using the other printing zone. The ribbon cassette is provided with a back tension
imparting mechanism (33) located between the thermal head (16) and the ribbon core
toward which the inked ribbon moves, to apply the predetermined brake to the inked
ribbon during its travel.
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