Abstract. Let U q (g) be the quantum supergroup of gl m|n or the modified quantum supergroup of osp m|2n over the field of rational functions in q, and let V q be the natural module for U q (g). There exists a unique tensor functor, associated with V q , from the category of ribbon graphs to the category of finite dimensional representations of U q (g), which preserves ribbon category structures. We show that this functor is full in the cases g = gl m|n or osp 2ℓ+1|2n . For g = osp 2ℓ|2n , we show that the space Hom Uq(g) (V ⊗r q , V ⊗s q ) is spanned by images of ribbon graphs if r + s < 2ℓ(2n + 1). The proofs involve an equivalence of module categories for two versions of the quantisation of U(g).