A ribbon cartridge for a printer. The ribbon cartridge includes a frame that supports supply and take-up spools and that has one or more locating features to facilitate its insertion and positioning in a frame of a printer. For example, the ribbon cartridge frame may include a pair of detents defined approximately midway between the two spools to facilitate balanced insertion. The detents are slots with rounded ends that are configured to receive similarly shaped reference protrusions of the printer frame. The cartridge frame may also define a pocket for receiving an identification tag associated with the ribbon cartridge that ensures compatibility with the printer and passage of other information to the printer. In other embodiments, the ribbon cartridge may include a cleaning roller.