Embossing tape

Embossing tape is a labelling

Label

A label is a piece of paper, polymer, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or article, on which is printed a legend, information concerning the product, addresses, etc. A label may also be printed directly on the container or article....

 medium usually of hard plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

. Embossing tape is used with embossing machines, often handheld.

Method

The machine features a wheel with raised characters, similar to a daisy wheel

Daisy wheel printer

Daisy wheel printers use an impact printing technology invented in 1969 by David S. Lee at Diablo Data Systems. It uses interchangeable pre-formed type elements, each with typically 96 glyphs, to generate high-quality output comparable to premium typewriters such as the IBM Selectric, but two to...

. The user turns the wheel to align the desired character with the tape and presses a trigger, forcing the character against the tape. Upon releasing the trigger a mechanism advances the tape to the next position. The embossed characters stand out from the tape and look white due to stretching of the plastic.

Advantages

Embossing tape and the embossing device itself is relatively inexpensive to buy, usually around $10 from stationery

Stationery

Stationery has historically meant a wide gamut of materials: paper and office supplies, writing implements, greeting cards, glue, pencil case etc.-History of stationery:...

stores. Because of this, embossing tape has found popularity with children and adolescents. Unlike paper labels, embossing tape is very durable, doesn't fade over time, rarely leaves a sticky residue and doesn't break upon removal.

Disadvantages

Because of the method for embossing (see above), the characters can only be white in colour. Sometimes, the adhesive backing of the tape can weaken, especially if it is placed in liquid or dust. The tape is more rigid than most other labeling materials, and may come loose if the labeled object bends or under the force of its original curvature, if the label is not straightened after being printed.