History of the typewriter. Buying a typewriter The first typewriter in the world

In their more than 100-year history, typewriters have "seen" a lot of talented works, they have been direct participants in the creation of thousands of masterpieces and bestsellers around the world. For many decades, the typewriter was considered the main working tool of writers, philosophers and journalists.

And the history of the creation of a typewriter began in 1714, when a patent was issued for a certain typewriter. It was invented by plumber Henry Mill (Henry Mill) from England, but, unfortunately, there is no exact data on the mechanism and photos of the unit itself.

It took almost a century to create the first, and most importantly, working typewriter in 1808. The creator and developer was Pellegrino Turi, who invented it for the familiar Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzono. Carolina was blind, and with the help of such an apparatus she could correspond with her relatives. The letters of Carolina Fantoni da Fivisono have survived to this day, but the typewriter has not. It is known that paper stained with soot was used for printing (it looks like carbon paper). By the way, the idea of ​​"copying" several documents was not developed by Turi. In 1806, the Englishman Ralph Wedgwood patented "charcoal paper". For another two centuries, it was actively used in office work to quickly obtain copies.

But back to printing presses.

The next attempt to create a unit suitable for "quick printing" was in Russia, when M.I. Alisov developed a typesetting machine. Mikhail Ivanovich wanted to simplify and facilitate the procedure for copying manuscripts and originals, and he succeeded. The machine performed great. True, the high cost of the product put a fat cross on the history of the development of this product.

September 1867 was a milestone date for all writing machines in the world.

They say that a talented person is talented in everything. Christopher Latham Scholes was a writer, journalist and, of course, an inventor. In 1867, he applied for a patent for the production of his "brainchild" - a printing apparatus. The "bureaucratic machine" took months to make a decision, but nevertheless in 1868 Christopher received the coveted confirmation. Glidden and Soule were listed as co-authors of the development.

Six years later, the first batch of writing units under the Sholes & Glidden Type Writer brand entered the American market. It should be noted that the appearance was very different from what we are used to seeing: the keyboard consisted of two rows of letters arranged according to the alphabetical hierarchy. By the way, there were no numbers 1 and 0, their role was played by "I" and "O". The downsides of the first unit were plenty. This is an inconvenient arrangement of letters, and the inability to work quickly, because the hammers on which the stamps with the letters are fixed did not have time to take their original position and got confused with each other.

By the way, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain, which was published in 1876, was printed on just such a typewriter with "tangled hammers". You can envy the patience of the author.

There were several ways to solve the problem of hammer entanglement: work more slowly (this did not suit the writers) or change the design of the typewriter. But Christopher Sholes used a third method: he changed the order of the letters. The fact is that the hammers were installed on an arc, and most often the letters placed in the “neighborhood” jammed. And then, the developer decided to fix them so that the letters that are involved in the formation of stable combinations are farther from each other. By placing the letters in the correct order, the updated keyboard began with letters Q,W, E, R, T, Y.

QWERTY layout or universal keyboard has become popular all over the world.

Did you know that Leo Tolstoy's favorite writing assistant, without whom it was impossible to imagine the interior of his office, was the reliable Remington, and his colleague in the writing workshop V.V. Mayakovsky was a bright admirer of Underwood.

In 1877, Scholes sold the rights to make a typewriter to Remington, a gun manufacturer. And this was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the creation of the typewriter. Remington engineers added the ability to print uppercase and lowercase letters to the "source" (in the original version, only capital letters were written). To do this, added the key "shift" (Shift).

Scholes' success inspired other inventors as well. In 1895, Franz Wagner took out a patent for a typewriter with horizontal arms that strike the paper roller from the front. The main difference, and at the same time advantage, from the invention of 1867 was that the printed text was visible in the process of work. Wagner then sold the rights to manufacture his typewriter to John Underwood. The design was very easy to use, and very soon the new owner made a fortune on it.

In addition to Remingtons and Underwoods, dozens of other companies produced their own versions of other typewriters. From 1890-1920, these devices were constantly modernized and improved. Among the machines of this period, two main types can be distinguished: with a single letter carrier and with a lever device. The convenience of the former was that the printed text could be seen immediately, but at the same time they were very slow in operation and had poor penetrating power. The advantage of the second was speed.

The last typewriter factory in India closed in April 2011. This means that the era of this writing tool is officially over.

After reading this headline, many will decide that the era of classic writing devices is long over. Computers, laptops, touchscreen gadgets have supplanted the inventions of the last century. However, the typewriter is still popular among creative people and in some government organizations, especially since modern market electronic goods offers comfortable writing devices. Among the variety of devices, you can find one that will support the very atmosphere of creativity and meet the requirements of progress.

Typewriter device

Technical devices of the XIX-XX centuries are a device equipped with a set of keys, pressing which leads to the appearance of printed characters on the carrier - paper. The history of the creation of a typewriter begins its existence in 1714. In Russia, the first writing device was produced in 1928, it was called "Yanalif". Later, portable devices "Moskva", "Lyubava" and stationery "Yatran", "Ukraine" spread. Of the foreign brands, "Optima", "Erika", "Robotron" were popular. The principle of operation of printing devices is described below.

Mechanical

Letters are applied to paper with the help of special levers, which end with platforms with plastic or metal letters. When the key is pressed, the lever strikes the ink-soaked tape, so that a trace of the letter remains on the supplied paper. Sheet shifting is carried out automatically. The design of the typewriter is of 4 types:

1. With cylinder. The font is placed on an elongated cylinder that moves back and forth to pick up the letter, after which the hammer strikes from the back side, imprinting the character on paper.
2. With levers. The imprint is obtained as a result of hitting the paper with a lever located in the slots of the segment.
3. With a ball. The letters are printed on a writing head that moves as you type. Such machines print in different fonts.
4. With chamomile. This invention is a specific carrier of matrices from which an imprint is taken. On each petal of a camomile one sign is placed.

Electronic

Modern devices are hybrids of classic printers and computers. An electronic typewriter is equipped with a small E-Ink display that displays text. Electronic ink is used for work, so your eyes will not get tired. The printing device has compact dimensions, a capacious battery that allows it to operate autonomously for up to 4 weeks. The typed material is stored in the memory of the device and when connected to wireless network is transferred to the virtual storage, from where you can download the file from any gadget.

Buy a typewriter

New devices can be found on sale, but the manufacturer has significantly reduced their release. Appearance modern devices is far from the old models, and does not inspire that atmosphere. If you want to buy a typewriter that has already become a rarity, see private ads, for example, on Avito. Many vintage appliances are still in working condition and can serve not only as a decoration of the collection.

Yatran

This domestic printing mechanism was produced in Kirovograd from 1975 to 1995. There are several modifications of the machine that relate to the length of the carriage (short, medium, long), body material (aluminum, plastic). The manufacturer has created 12 models. Characteristics of the printing machine:

• Title: Yatran.
• Price: used models cost 1000-10000 rubles.
• Works with 7 alphabets, font type "Peak", "Medium". The length of the printed line is 305 and 435 mm. Models have an electromechanical drive unit for printing and carriage return. The number of printing keys is 46, the number of characters is 92. There are 5 line spacing values ​​(from 4.25 to 12.75 mm).
• Pros: high quality printing, manual contains a detailed description of how to use the device.
• Cons: heavy, models with plastic levers break quickly.

Underwood

One of the most popular typewriters from the USA. The first two models were produced between 1896 and 1900. The release of Underwood No. 5 was especially successful: in the early 1920s, more than a million devices were sold. Later, machines began to be equipped with mechanisms that perform addition and subtraction operations. Before World War II, the manufacturer created the world's largest typewriter. In 1959 controlling stake Underwood shares were acquired by Olivetti. Device characteristics:

• Title: Underwood.
• Price: you can buy a typewriter for 9000-16000 rubles.
• The machine is compact and stylish, has horizontal letter levers. The keyboard has 42 keys and 90 characters. There are three types of devices with different carriage lengths, two font sizes: standard and large.
• Pros: the device is light, easy to care for, the correct design of the device minimizes typos, even the photo shows an elegant design.
• Cons: high cost, the buyer needs to look for goods from individuals who can put an inappropriate price.

The typewriter is a licensed copy of "Erika" produced by the GDR. It was relatively easy to buy a typewriter in the USSR, since the price of its two models was 180 and 190 rubles (after 1983). Characteristics:

• Title: Love.
• Price: 1000-3500 r.
• The body of the device is plastic, the bottom is black, there is no under the keys. The number of keys is 44, the length of the printed line is 225 and 305 mm, three options for line spacing. The diameter of the scroll shaft is 32.3 mm. Through a carbon paper you can get 3 clear copies.
• Pros: the models are light (5.2 and 5.7 kg), have small dimensions, making it possible to carry the machine anywhere.
• Cons: the machine is completely mechanical, so careful maintenance is needed for its normal operation - regular cleaning and lubrication. The plastic case is resistant to damage.

How much does a typewriter cost High Quality and old year? Valuation in monetary terms is set by collectors who know what kind of product they are dealing with. However, even the early Olivetti machines do not belong to the rare category, so knowledgeable people sell them at a low price. Modern models are also inexpensive. Profitable ads from private traders can be found not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but throughout Russia. Characteristics:

• Title: Olivetti.
• Price: 1200-1500 r.
• The electric typewriter uses the chamomile type of printing. Equipped with a cartridge that needs to be changed or refilled periodically. Line length - 228 mm, 5 options for line spacing, correction of typos.
• Pros: low price, light weight.
• Cons: inconvenience when working with the cartridge.

Optima

Cars made in the GDR were popular in the 50s of the last century. A lot of running models have been released - Elite 2, Elite 3, M12, M14 and others. However, the Optima factory did not last long, and soon the Zentronik Robotron enterprise became a monopoly in East Germany. Features of the popular model:

• Name: Optima M12/
• Price: 1500-3000 r.
• The mechanical printing device has a carriage width of 32 cm. There are 5 spacing options, 46 keys and 92 characters.
• Pros: line guides are made of transparent material that does not cover the printed text, there is a key to unravel the letter levers.
• Cons: not found.

Video

Only a small number of traditional manufacturing companies, such as Smith-Crown, Olivetti, Adler-Royal, Olympia, Brother, Nakajima, etc., continued to produce such devices, and most of these companies were engaged in the production of electronic models of typewriters at that time.

The last typewriter factory in the world, owned by the Indian company Godrej and Boyce, closed in 2011.

History of creation

Like most other technical devices and inventions, the development of a mechanism typewriter was not the result of the efforts of one single person. Many people jointly or independently came up with the idea fast printing texts. The first patent for a machine of this kind was issued by Queen Anne of England to Henry Mill. Henry Mill) back in 1714. The inventor patented not only the machine, but also a method for sequentially printing characters on paper. Unfortunately, any detailed information there is no record of his invention. Also, information about the actual creation and use of the described machine has not been preserved.

It wasn't until almost 100 years later that people became interested in the possibility of doing fast printing again. Around 1808 Pellegrino Turri ( Pellegrino Turri), also known as the inventor of carbon paper, creates his own printing press. Details about his invention are unknown today, but the texts printed on this device have survived to this day.

Alisov's speed printer

The machine did not become popular due to the high quality of printing. When the first production batch of machines made in England was received in 1877, they were equated with printing machines, and everything that was printed on them had to be censored. This was due to the fact that she gave prints of excellent quality, completely similar to typographic ones. Due to mandatory censorship, no one wanted to purchase these typewriters, and the inventor had to open his own institution for printing lectures, which lasted a very short time.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, typewriters were not produced, but were used. However, due to the peculiarities of pre-revolutionary spelling, the placement of the keys was somewhat different from the current one. So, in the place where the letter “C” is now, “I” was placed, and in the place “A” - “b”, since then this letter was used very often, at the end of all words ending in a consonant. The letters "C" and "E" were located in the uppermost "digital" row after the number "0". The bottom row was slightly shifted to the left, because after the letters "I" and "H" in place of the current key "C" there was a key with the letter "ѣ", "C" was the next key. The first typewriter in our country was produced in 1928 in Kazan, it was called "Yanalif". At a later time, the most common domestic brands of typewriters in the USSR were "Ukraine" (stationery) and "Moscow" (portable). Of the foreign ones, Optima (GDR, stationery) and Consul (Czechoslovakia, portable) were quite widespread. However, in terms of prevalence, typewriters were significantly inferior to computers.

The world's last typewriter factory closed in 2011.

Design features

Most typewriter designs can be classified into one of two main types. The most widespread are lever-segment typewriters, in which the imprint occurs as a result of hitting the paper with letter levers located in the slots of the segment. The second type includes segmentless typewriters, which use a type head instead of levers; machines of this type include machines Hammond, IBM Selectric, Yatran. There is also a division into mechanical, electric typewriters. In addition, squeaking machines were divided into stationery and portable. Stationery machines were operated, as a rule, in stationary conditions. Portable machines were placed in a small suitcase and were intended for people of "creative professions" (journalists, writers, etc.). Some portable typewriters had smaller print than stationery typewriters. Stationery and typewriters also differed in the number of keys, which for Russian typewriters could range from 42 to 46. The reduction in the number of keys was achieved by abandoning the key with the letter "", using the homography of some letters and numbers (instead of the number "" the letter " could be used ”, instead of “ ” - “ ”), and some other abbreviations. On stationery typewriters, printing was allowed along the wide side of an A4 sheet and, accordingly, A3 format, on portable typewriters - only along the narrow side of an A4 sheet.

Carriage

paper transport mechanism

Printing mechanism

Improvements

Two color ribbon allowed to print, if necessary, other than black. The color changer could completely turn off the rise of the tape, and the machine switched to colorless printing, for example, to create an inscription on the foil.

Electric typewriter "IBM Selectric", 1961

AT electric typewriter the blow is produced by an electric drive, which allows you to press the keys with little effort; in addition, it is possible to print a series of identical characters by simply holding down the key. In general, the printing speed is higher, but only when using a blind ten-finger printing method.

AT printing machine simultaneously with the printing of the text, perforation of the punched tape is performed, which allows you to collect a kind of library of standard documents - the printing machine can then print the text from the punched tape; in addition, by cutting and gluing punched tape, you can "edit" the typed text.

AT type-setting machine uses proportional rather than fixed font; in addition, a carbon paper ribbon is used instead of an ink ribbon. The result is a very crisp typographic-looking text that can be photographically produced printing forms, thus avoiding the traditional typing process.

Multi-keyboard typewriter in fact, it consists of several typewriters placed side by side and connected so that the carriage can move from one typewriter to another. This allows you to print, for example, alternately in Latin and Cyrillic. Because of the bulkiness, they were rarely used - usually the text in the "foreign" alphabet was entered by hand.

design typewriter used for drawing inscriptions on drawings; usually mounted on a drawing board ruler.

Application

For a significant part of the 20th century, almost all official documents emanating from state institutions (and their internal document flow) were typewritten. At the same time, in the USSR, statements, receipts and autobiographies of citizens were written by hand; protocols were often drawn up by hand. Also, publishing houses required to bring manuscripts in typewritten form, which greatly facilitated the work of typesetters, who now did not need to parse the often incomprehensible handwriting of the authors.

Reprinting handwritten texts on a typewriter was the work of special workers - typists (since the profession was predominantly female, the male version of the term did not take root); earlier they were also called Remingtonists or Remingtonists (after the brand of Remington typewriters). The work of printing documents on typewriters was called typewriting and was carried out in special organizations or departments (“typing bureaus”).

Since the last third of the 20th century Computer techologies typewriters began to be replaced. Today, computers (with appropriate peripherals) have completely taken over the functions of typewriters, which are thus hopelessly outdated.

Typescript

Typewritten text has characteristic features:

• due to a limited set of characters, some characters were combined - for example, left and right quotes are not distinguished, hyphen and dash are combined.

All this made it possible to simplify the design of the typewriter.

Font "Courier"

When creating teletypes and computer printers, these features were repeated - also in order to simplify the hardware and software. Many early word processors (e.g. Lexicon, ChiWriter) were designed to imitate typewritten text - in part because the formatting of many documents was regulated state standards created in the era of typewriters.

Based on the computer fonts of the Courier family, which are used as default monospace fonts in many operating systems, lies typewriter font. In addition, there are designer fonts that mimic "dirty" text printed on a real typewriter (for example, "Trixie").

Mechanical typewriters made it possible to receive text with different line spacing: single, one and a half, double, etc. The concept of line spacing is currently used in word processors. AT normative documents and standards governing the design of text documents, the concept of “typewriter spacing” (“typewriter spacing”) is still used, which is numerically equal to the distance between baselines divided by the character height.

see also

Notes

1. Andrey Velichko The era of typewriters is over. Compulenta (April 26, 2011). Retrieved December 12, 2011.
2. Oden, Charles Vonley (1917), "Evolution of the Typewriter", New York: Printed by J. E. Hetsch, pp. 17-22 , (English)
3. Kupriyanov Alexey Black rectangle. Copy paper is 200 years old. Polit.ru(October 20, 2006). Archived
4. V. V. Lermantov encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron. - St. Petersburg. - T. 23A. - S. 753-754.
5. Goizman Shimon Ruvimovich. Mikhail Ivanovich Alisov is the inventor of the typesetting machine. Archived from the original on August 26, 2011. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
6. The world's last typewriter factory has closed in India. Gazeta.ru (April 26, 2011). Archived from the original on August 26, 2011. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
7. Berezin B.I. Typing tutorial. - M .: Light industry, 1969. - 160 p. - 70,000 copies.
8. Typist // / Ed. D. N. Ushakova. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia; OGIZ; , 1935-1940.
9. Remingtonist // Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language: In 4 volumes / Ed. D. N. Ushakova. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia; OGIZ; State publishing house of foreign and national dictionaries, 1935-1940.
10. The shift of the next line relative to the previous one was carried out automatically during the so-called "carriage return" - the transition to printing the next line, produced by moving a special lever. Typically, the interval could be manually adjusted by turning the paper feed roller.

Links

(and also, as a rule, scrolling the ink ribbon). To print multiple copies of the same document, sheets of carbon paper are used, laid between ordinary paper sheets.

In November 2012, the Brother factory released a typewriter called "the last one made in the UK"; the car was donated to the London Science Museum.

Encyclopedic YouTube

• 1 / 5

  It wasn't until almost 100 years later that people became interested in the possibility of doing fast printing again. Around 1808 Pellegrino Turri (English) Russian (Pellegrino Turri), also known as the inventor of carbon paper, creates his own printing press. Details about his invention are unknown today, but the texts printed on this device have survived to our time.

  The machine never became popular due to the high cost of printing. When the first mass-produced batch of machines made in England was received in 1877, they were equated with printing machines, and everything that was printed on them had to be censored. This was due to the fact that she gave prints of excellent quality, completely similar to typographic ones. Due to mandatory censorship, no one wanted to purchase these typewriters, and the inventor had to open his own institution for printing lectures, which lasted a very short time.

  Design features

  File:Typewriter's impact printing technology.jpg

  The four main manufacturers of the imprint of letters, numbers and signs on typewriters are: cylinder, levers, head (“ball”) and chamomile.

  Most typewriter designs fall into one of four main types:

  1. cylinder machines,
  2. lever machines,
  3. ball machines
  4. chamomile cars.

  Lever-segment typewriters and machines with daisies are most widely used.

  The writing cylinder was not widely used in typewriters. There were only a few machines with a writing cylinder: Mignon (1924), Plurotyp (1933), Helios-Klimax (1914), Heady (1921).

  On typewriters with levers, the print is obtained by striking the paper with levers located in the slots of the segment. Machines with writing levers include Olympia machines (models SG, SGE, SM, SF, etc.), Adler machines (Adler Gabriele 2000, Adler Primus, Adler Tippa, etc.), Remington cars (Remie Scout, Monarch / Monarch Pioneer, Remington Rand, etc.), Hermes cars (Hermes Baby, "Hermes 3000" "Hermes Rocket", etc.), soviet cars("Yatran", "Lyubava", "Listvitsa", etc.).

  The writing heads or writing balls are associated with IBM machines because they first appeared on IBM machines in 1961 (IBM Selectric). Later writing heads/balls were used on both Remington machines (eg Sperry Remington SR 101) and Quelle machines (eg Privileg 910C lift-off). The writing balls are convenient because they can be replaced and thus multiple fonts can be printed on the same machine.

  A writing chamomile is a specific carrier of matrices from which an imprint is made (on each chamomile petal there is one sign). Daisies are convenient because they are easy to replace, and on one machine, replacing one daisy with another, you can print in several fonts. Writing daisies received great popularity and were used on machines from different manufacturers: on IBM machines (for example, on IBM 3000, IBM 6787, IBM 6747 and Wheelwriter), on Olympia machines (ES 70-Line, "Carrera", "Mastertype", "Mini-Office", etc.), on Canon machines (for example, on Typestar and Typemate models), on Triumph-Adler machines (for example. , on Triumph-Adler Gabriele 150, Triumph-Adler Junior Electronic models), on Olivetti machines (e.g. on ET Compact, ET Personal and Linea models), on Hermes machines ” (e.g. on Toptronic and Mediatronic models), on machines from other manufacturers (Samsung SQ, Samsung TW, Brother CE, Brother SX, Brother WP/WPT, Optima SB/SP, Erika 3004 Electronic, Erika 6005/ 6006, Erika Electronic Portable, Casio 130CE/140CE, Citizen Scribona 10/11/15, Lexmark Wheelwriter). In the USSR, in the second half of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, a machine with a petal type carrier was produced - the Romashka typewriter (of the PELP-305 type, portable electronic).

  There is also a division into mechanical and electrical ("electromechanical") typewriters. Mechanical, for example, refers to "Lyubava", and to electromechanical - "Yatran".

  In addition, depending on the purpose and dimensions, typewriters are divided into stationery and portable. Office machines are used, as a rule, in stationary conditions. Portable machines are small-sized, fit in a small case-type suitcase and are intended for people of creative professions and those who travel frequently (these are the machines of journalists, writers, students, scientists, businessmen, etc.).

  Stationery and typewriters also differed in the number of keys (there were fewer keys on portable typewriters). due to the rejection of the key with the letter "", the use of homography of some letters and numbers (the letter "" could be used instead of the number "", instead of "" - ""), and some other forms of practicality and economy. On stationery machines, the carriages are long, so on such machines you can print along the wide side of the A4 sheet and, accordingly, on the A3 format. On portable machines, the carriages were short and could only be printed along the narrow side of an A4 sheet.

  Carriage

  paper transport mechanism

  Printing mechanism

  Improvements

  Two color ribbon allowed to print, if necessary, other than black. The color changer could completely turn off the rise of the tape, and the machine switched to colorless printing, for example, to create an inscription on the foil.

  AT electric typewriter the blow is produced by an electric drive, which allows you to press the keys with little effort; in addition, it is possible to print a series of identical characters by simply holding down the key. In general, the printing speed is higher, but only when using a blind ten-finger printing method.

  AT printing machine simultaneously with the printing of the text, perforation of the punched tape is performed, which allows you to collect a kind of library of standard documents - the printing machine can then print the text from the punched tape; in addition, by cutting and gluing punched tape, you can "edit" the typed text.

  AT type-setting machine uses proportional rather than fixed font; in addition, a carbon paper ribbon is used instead of an ink ribbon. The result is very crisp typographic-looking text from which plates can be photographically produced, thus avoiding the traditional typesetting process.

  Multi-keyboard typewriter in fact, it consists of several typewriters placed side by side and connected so that the carriage can move from one typewriter to another. This allows you to print, for example, alternately in Latin and Cyrillic. Because of the bulkiness, they were rarely used - usually the text in the "foreign" alphabet was entered by hand.

  design typewriter used for drawing inscriptions on drawings; usually mounted on a drawing board ruler.

  Application

  For a significant part of the 20th century, almost all official documents emanating from state institutions (and their internal document flow) were typewritten. At the same time, in the USSR, statements, receipts and autobiographies of citizens were written by hand; protocols were often drawn up by hand. Also, publishing houses required to bring manuscripts in typewritten form, which greatly facilitated the work of typesetters, who now did not need to parse the often incomprehensible handwriting of the authors.

  Reprinting handwritten texts on a typewriter was the work of special workers - typists (since the profession was predominantly female, the male version of the term did not take root); earlier they were also called Remingtonists or Remingtonists (after the brand of Remington typewriters). Work on printing documents on typewriters was called typewritten work and was carried out in special organizations or departments (“typewriting bureaus”).

  Since the last third of the 20th century, printers and electronic document management began to gradually replace typewriters. However, the use of the latter is still considered appropriate in a number of areas - for example, for the preparation of secret documents, where the absence of a digital copy of the text is an advantage, since it makes it difficult to leak information.

  Typescript

  Typewritten text has characteristic features:

  • all signs occupy on paper equal space;
  • due to a limited set of characters, some characters were combined - for example, left and right quotes are not distinguished, hyphen and dash are combined.

  All this made it possible to simplify the design of the typewriter.

  When creating teletypes and computer printers, these features were repeated - also in order to simplify the hardware and software. Many early word processors (for example, Lexicon, ChiWriter) were focused on imitation of typewritten text - in part because the design of many documents was regulated by state standards created in the era of typewriters.

  Used as the default monospaced fonts on many operating systems, the computer fonts in the Courier family are based on the typewriter font. In addition, there are designer fonts that mimic "dirty" text printed on a real typewriter (for example, "Trixie").

  Mechanical typewriters made it possible to receive text with different line spacing: single, one and a half, double, etc. The concept of line spacing is currently used in word processors. In normative documents and standards governing the design of text documents, the concept of “typewriter spacing” (“typewriter spacing”) is still used, which is numerically equal to the distance between the base lines divided by the character height.

  see also

  Notes

  1. Andrew Velichko. End of the era of typewriters (indefinite) . Compulenta (April 26, 2011). Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  2. CBC News. World "s last typewriter plant stops production (April 26, 2011). Retrieved May 29, 2014. "A previous version of this story did not clearly state that Godrej & Boyce appears to be the world"s last maker of mechanical typewriters, which operate solely on human power. Numerous other manufacturers continue to make several types of electric typewriters.".
  3. The world's last factory for the production of typewriters closed in India (indefinite) . Gazeta.ru (April 26, 2011). Retrieved May 29, 2014. Archived from the original on August 26, 2011.
  4. White Out? World"s "last typewriter factory" apparently isn"t (indefinite) . Content.usatoday.com (April 26, 2011). Retrieved March 30, 2012. Archived from the original on July 15, 2013.
  5. Romenesko, Jim Reports of typewriter's death are premature (indefinite) . Poynter.org (April 26, 2011). Retrieved March 30, 2012.