Abstract: A three-position ribbon guide comprises a ribbon guide bar which is pivoted at one end and carries a ribbon guide at an opposite end. Arranged transversely to the guide bar, one above and one below, are two pivotable armature levers each coupled to the guide bar by a pin which rides in a slot in the guide bar. Each slot has a generally vertical and a horizontal portion. An armature fixed in each lever near a pivot axis thereof is subjected selectively to a magnetic attraction when a current flows through an adjacent electromagnet. Energization of one or the other of the electromagnets will pivot the lever and cause its coupling pin to slide along the horizontal portion of the slot in the guide bar. Such movement raises the ribbon guide bar about its pivot, the coupling pin of the other lever remaining steady but sliding through the vertical portion of the guide slot thereof as the guide bar moves.