When the printer ‘ran out of ink’ you wound the ribbon back onto the starting spool and ran it through again. The next time you might need to turn it upside down to get any more out of it.
Big caveat, printers have always been unholy hellish abominations that sense your fear and exploit it right before delivering that so important THING you need to print
I remember when printers would print without being sassy & extortionate.
Back when HP made one of the friendliest printers out there
and even before that we had dot matrix printers.
When the printer ‘ran out of ink’ you wound the ribbon back onto the starting spool and ran it through again. The next time you might need to turn it upside down to get any more out of it.
Big caveat, printers have always been unholy hellish abominations that sense your fear and exploit it right before delivering that so important THING you need to print