Wax · wax-resin · resin

The ribbon has to suit the label.

Not the printer — the label. A resin ribbon on paper wastes money, a wax ribbon on plastic rubs off in a week, and the wrong pairing takes the printhead with it. That pairing is most of what we are for.

Everything here is black unless it says otherwise, ink side out, and sold each. Tell us the label and the printer and we will tell you the ribbon.

Three kinds, and it is decided by the label

Wax, wax-resin, resin.

In order of cost, and in order of how hard the print is to rub off. Most warehouses want the middle one.

Wax

The everyday ribbon, and the cheapest to run. It prints on paper labels and nothing else worth doing. Fine for a carton that ships this week and is opened next week.

Wax-resin

Tougher print, and it will go on paper or plastic. Survives handling, rubbing and a wet dock. This is what most warehouses end up on, and it is why it is most of what sits on our shelf.

Resin

For plastic labels and anything that meets chemicals, solvents, heat or years outdoors. Asset labels, drum labels, anything that has to still scan when somebody comes looking for it.

A shelf of Zebra thermal transfer ribbons in their wrappers, the front boxes
labelled Zebra Performance 2000 Wax Ribbon Black, 83mm by 450M, with a
barcoded bin label reading A-4-L on the shelf edge — Our own shelf, bin **A-4-L**. Zebra states the pairing on the box itself — **“For use on Paper and Synthetic Labels and Tags”** — which is the whole question on this page, printed by the people who made it. The blue wrappers behind are the same thing in a different width. The loose cardboard tubes on the right are take-up cores.

The pairing is what kills printheads. A resin ribbon run against the wrong stock, or a label more abrasive than the head was built for, takes the printhead out early — and a replacement printhead is the expensive part of the printer. If you tell us the label, the ribbon follows from it.

The range

Start with the printer, again.

Ribbons come on two centres and they are not interchangeable. Look at the one in the machine, or at the width of the label you print.

An industrial thermal transfer ribbon beside a desktop one. The industrial
roll is several times the diameter and sits on a wide core; the desktop
ribbon is a slim roll on a much smaller core. — **The same product, four times the size.** On the right, an industrial ribbon — **106 mm × 450 m**, on a 25 mm centre, and it will outlast a lot of label rolls. On the left, a desktop ribbon: **70 m** on a 13 mm centre. They do not fit each other’s machines, and this is why the first question is which printer rather than which ribbon.

1. Which printer?

2. How wide is the label?

Label width mm The ribbon has to be at least as wide as the label. Anything wide enough is shown.

3. Wax, wax-resin or resin?

A desktop printer ribbon sealed in its bag, lying beside the empty cardboard
take-up core that comes with it — **A desktop ribbon, and the thing people ring about.** The empty cardboard tube in the bag is the **take-up core**, not a spare. The ribbon winds onto it as it prints, and without it the printer will not thread.

Showing all.

40 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
40 mm × 450 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
55 mm × 70 m Desktop printer Resin
55 mm × 70 m Desktop printer Wax-resin
60 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Resin
60 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
60 mm × 450 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
65 mm × 70 m Desktop printer Wax-resin
80 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Resin
80 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
80 mm × 450 m Industrial printer Wax
80 mm × 450 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
85 mm × 70 m Desktop printer Wax-resin
89 mm × 450 m Industrial printer WaxOn back-order
90 mm × 300 m Industrial printer WaxMinimum 16
100 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
106 mm × 450 m Industrial printer WaxBack in 1 November 2026
110 mm × 70 m Desktop printer Resin
110 mm × 70 m Desktop printer Wax-resinMinimum 20
110 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Resin
110 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax
110 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resinOn back-order
110 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resinBlue
110 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resinGreen
110 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resinRed
110 mm × 450 m Industrial printer Resin
110 mm × 450 m Industrial printer Wax
110 mm × 450 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
130 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
130 mm × 450 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
155 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
155 mm × 450 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
170 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resin
220 mm × 300 m Industrial printer Wax-resin

Everything is quoted rather than listed. Ribbons are bought by the box more often than the roll, the price moves with the quantity, and several of these come from more than one place — so a single number on a page would be wrong for most of the ways you can buy them. Ask and you get the real one.

Where a line says minimum 16 or minimum 20, that is the supplier's carton and not our preference. Everything else can be had as a single roll.

Ask for a price

Three things and we can quote it.

None of them are compulsory — if you only know some of it, send what you have. A photograph of the end of the box answers most of this on its own.

Send a photo of the ribbon box.

The width, the length and the part number are printed on the end of it, and that is faster than describing it. If the box is long gone, tell us the printer and the label.

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