¢HARDWARE WAREHOUSE¢¢by Stuart Murray¢¢¢RE-INK¢¢ If you use a dot-matrix printer with your Atari 8-bit then you will know how quickly the ribbon turns your print from a crisp black to a dotted grey. After purchasing a few ribbons I thought it was time to testdrive a re-inking kit. Linefeed, a leading computer supplies company, kindly provided RE-INK, an aerosol spraycan by Lateral Developments Limited, for review in Futura.¢¢ The process is simple. Basically, you carefully open your ribbon, give the Re-ink can a good shake and evenly spray the fabric ribbon inside. You then replace the lid and let the ribbon dry for 48 hours. One spraycan of Re-ink will re-ink 40 rectangle-type ribbons or 20 square-type ribbons. Any one ribbon can be re-inked up to fifty times.¢¢ My dot matrix is a Citizen 120D+, which uses rectangular ribbons. I've re-inked my six spare ribbons twice over and there is still plenty left in the can. The process is a little messy so it's a good idea to re-ink all of your spare ribbons together.¢¢ The print quality of a re-inked ribbon is perfectly acceptable and certainly of a quality comparable to any new ribbon. The first few pages print uneven with patches of dark and light text (due to the drying process) but as the ribbon settles the print becomes normal.¢¢ If you have the patience and don't mind getting your hands dirty then Re-ink will save you a lot of money. It's also environmentally friendly!¢¢¢RE-INK is available for 9.45 pounds (plus 4 pounds P&P) from:¢¢Linefeed,¢Unit 7,¢Ashmead Business Centre,¢North Crescent,¢LONDON E16 4TG,¢UK.¢
