I once found a dot matrix printer that was worth keeping for some reason,
maybe it had a serial port or maybe it wsa the 24pin printer, but when I
went looking for a ribbon cartridge, no luck.
I picked one about the right size, and transplanted the ribbone from one
to the old cartridge. And that worked, but it wsa messy, keeping things
lined up properly. They weren't on a roll, the ribbon was just filling
the space in the plastic cartridge.
Michael