Paper Tape – With LASERs!

Though it is many decades since paper tape was commonly used as a data input or storage medium, it still holds a fascination for many who work with computers. Over the years we’ve featured more than one paper tape related project, and the latest to come out way is [ColemanJW2]’s 8-bit ASCII paper tape generator.

It’s natural to expect when talking about a paper tape generator that a machine of some type will emerge, probably with a large reel of tape, a whirring mechanical punch, and a big box of paper confetti. This one however is different, because it exists in software and produces an SVG file to cut the tape with a laser cutter. Common workshop equipment in 2025, but the stuff of science fiction when paper tape was current.

The software is a Python script, which has a friendly GUI. It applies 8-bit ASCII to the tape, and supports control codes and ANSI escape sequences. There’s a very short demonstration video of a tape being cut, which we’ve placed below the break.

If you make any tapes this way, see if you can find a paper tape event badge to read them.

 

20 thoughts on “Paper Tape – With LASERs!

  1. I have a script like this that generates punch cards for my 3d printed jacquard machine. I don’t really have a better way to do it, but man the time it takes to cut those holes adds up.

  2. Good grief that is glacial!

    Even a 1960s (and earlier!) teletype/teleprinter machines managed 10cps.

    Shame there aren’t any good videos of paper tape being read at 1000cps, i.e. >2m/s. Tape flew horizontally for >1m into a large hopper, and you really didn’t want to get your fingers anywhere near it.

    The nearest I’ve seen is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96GMpnLVPuo and that doesn’t show the full magnificance :) Anybody have a better video, e.g. of a Honeywell DDP 316/516?

  3. haha if you’re in the same room with this thing you’ll learn why it’s so silly that “vaporize” has come to imply that something simply disappears from existence. i’d rather have a bucket of chads than to smell this thing in operation

  4. As a Navy Electronics Tech in the 80s, I took a fistful of chad (same word for singular and plural), placed it in Chief’s coffee cup, and hot-glued the cup to the ceiling of Radio Central. To this day I’m overcome with joy at the memory of him pulling his cup from the ceiling and becoming covered with this paper-based terrorist glitter.

    Long live the chad!

  5. This reminds me of Wintergatan. He is making paper tapes for music boxes with some small hand punch gadget, and years ago he asked if someone knew a better solution.

    For this thing. It looks like it works, but the holes are a bit bigger then in the “original” version. Paper is not very strong, and those big holes weaken the paper tape.

    1. And 15 years from now after 5 different attempts scrapped and shelved and 50 new age tech bro philosophy books consumed, he’ll probably be happily reinventing a solution that existed 40 years ago.

  6. Huh, someone finally made good on this idea. I’ve heard people bat around “oh, we can just laser cut it” for years, and here it actually is. Kudos for following through, but now we see exactly why it’s impractical.

  7. Hello folks, maker of the above software tool above here, glad you find it interesting. Some tidbits and context that may shed light:

    1) If we take a modest average of 50 lines per program and 50 characters per line (considering spaces, commands, and variable names), a typical BASIC program from the 70s/80s might be around 2,500 characters in total. This is a rough estimate and would vary significantly based on the program’s purpose and the programmer’s style.

    The laser cutter is indeed slower than a punch at approx 1.5cps. Thus, the aforementioned program would take about 28 minutes to cut in its entirety. As I am not calculating arms trajectories for the US nuclear program, I have found this sufficient for such important work as playing ZORK.

    2) Surely, an actual tape punch can speed through tape punching at amazing speeds. They are, however, expensive if one can find one at all. Their vintage commands high prices and they often come in disrepair. This is merely a method of achieving the goal of ASCII paper tape programming in the realm of the hobbyist. This is a program that uses tools available to the lab-hobbyist today.

    3) It is indeed quite funny the amount of tech that goes into making a ~60 year old legacy programming medium. Lasers and python and vector graphics etc. But that’s the modern lab! How fortunate we are.

    4) A laser cutter does not smell and you can control the power of the laser so that chad can be created if you so desired. It’s not a death ray. Furthermore, they are properly exhausted through a HEPA filter, or if one chose to, outdoors. Check out the Glowforge Pro if you’re interested! Amazing tool for the workshop.

    5) A laser cutter is not noisy.

    6) This program took 2 days to put together. I was making functional ASCII programs on paper tape as soon as it was completed. Alternatively, the relative complexity of designing, fabricating, and aligning a mechanical device that has 8 sharp punches is well out of the scope of a simple hobbyist affair. Should one of you ever design such a thing and make its design open source with easily constructed parts at a good cost I would love the link to your design! Sound fun!

    Hope this clears up the “um, ackshually(s)” and I hope this program may prove useful to the vintage computer hobbyist.

      1. When cutting acrylic sure, but I have proper ventilation so in general my shop isn’t overwhelmed by it. And in this instance we’re discussing the cutting of paper with a low power setting on the laser. There is no smell, man.

  8. Nice job. Looks fairly similar to my popular PTAP2DXF program
    https://github.com/1944GPW/ptap2dxf
    that makes DXFs for CNC stencil cutting of punched tapes from paper, card, vinyl, Mylar or any other sheet material able to be cut.
    It can do 1-level through 8-level tape, moveable sprocket hole, ASCII, Baudot, Morse, Wheatstone, Whirlwind, text banners, textual representation and more. I guess there are laser cutters that would take the DXF as well.

    1. dang wish i would’ve known about this!!! oh well— at least i got some learning done in the process of making my own. Indeed, my next step was to add 5 bit baudot capability but this guy def has a full-formed tool already ready to go. thanks for the lead.

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