Tape Width
Tape Width identifies the physical width of magnetic tape a reel-to-reel machine is designed to transport.
Widths are commonly expressed in inches or millimetres; for example, quarter-inch tape is 6.35 mm wide. This dimension is separate from reel diameter and from the width or number of individual recorded tracks.
Tape Width — Reel-to-Reel
The tape must fit the machine’s guides, heads and transport arrangement. A reel with a compatible hub does not make a different tape width suitable. Use only the widths explicitly supported by the configured machine.
Matching tape width alone is not enough for correct playback. The recorded track layout, speed, equalization and any noise-reduction encoding must also be compatible. Keep the width specification separate from tape formulation or brand; different tapes can share the same physical width while requiring different recording settings.