platen
/ˈplat(ə)n
/noun
1The plate in a small letterpress printing press which presses the paper against the type.The pressman pulled on the bar, causing the platen to press the tympan on the inked type and taking the impression....
- All these prototypes were shaped into panels of various commercial thicknesses with a steam-heated platen press.
- The first power-driven platen press was developed about 1822.
2The cylindrical roller in a typewriter against which the paper is held.I'd set it up on the desk in my bedroom and feed a couple of sheets of paper down behind the platen roller....
- Strangely I feel this too with the early poems, a sense of deliberation, you can almost hear the typewriter keys hit the paper on the platen.
- Crack open any inkjet, and you'll find the same parts - paper feed, platens, optical tracking tape, and so on.
Origin
Late 16th century: from French platine 'flat piece' from plat 'flat'.