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Typewriters are cool. You press the keys and letters appear on a sheet of paper. Like a computer, but without all the bullshit. Here are my typewriters. All but one are from Smith Corona: 1931 Corona 4   Manufactured from 1924 to 1941, the Corona 4 came in a variety of colors besides black, including green, maroon, and blue, and with optional accent colors for the crackle finish on the face and sides. It’s a pretty little machine, but not very satisfying to type on. It’s a carriage shift typewriter, so when you press shift the entire carriage (the bit that holds the paper) lifts up to catch the upper half of the type slugs, so the shift key needs more force than the other keys. Also, fully depressing the space bar completely releases the carriage so it flies off to the end of the line, which would seem like something’s just broken, but watching it function from underneath it looks like it was intentionally designed that way so I dunno. 1946 Smith-Corona Sterling   The 2A/3A/4A Sterling was manufactured from 1938 to 1949, and overlapped a bit with the 1A Series Sterling (one of Smith Corona’s famous “flat top” models). I love this thing. Great design, the racing stripes look cool as hell, and typing on it feels great. By now, Smith Corona had switched to a basket shift design, where pressing shift drops the type basket down instead of lifting the carriage up, so typing caps and symbols is a lot more fluid than on earlier models. Also, now there’s a tabulator. There’s clips you can stick on to a bar running along the back of the carriage, so when you press “Tab.” the carriage lets go until a clip stops it, allowing you to indent or set up columns without having to hammer the space bar look you know what tabs are. 1957 Silent Super   Here’s where Smith Corona hit their stride. The 5 Series typewriters ran from 1949 to 1958/1961 depending on the model, and they’re a favorite among typewriter nerds. Another great design with a fantastic feel. The Silent Super was their top-of-the line portable, and came in colors like Alpine Blue, Sapphire Grey, Coral Pink, Sea-foam Green, and Desert Sand. By the mid-50s it included a key for the number 1 (previously you used a lowercase “L” for 1, and if you wanted an exclamation point, you had to type an apostrophe and then backspace and add a period below it), and keys to set and erase tabs. No more messing with clips. From here on out, all Smith Corona manuals would use the same internal design as this typewriter. Another favorite of mine. 1968 Super Sterling   Part of the 6 Series of Smith Coronas. Basically the Silent Super in a new body, but much less comfortable to type on. The action is stiffer and even on the lowest firmness setting it feels a lot clunkier overall. I never really use this one. 1970 Classic 12   Types about the same as the Super Sterling, but it has two saving graces. The first is its 12” platen, which means you can feed a standard letter sized piece of paper in landscape orientation, so you can type sideways on the page and do weird layouts or do typewriter art stuff. The other is the typeface. Everything else so far has been Pica No. 1; this is Presidential Elite. Still Pica spacing, so it’s 10 characters per inch, but it’s got a little classier look. Half Space lets you try to cram in any letters or punctuation you missed, and holding down Power Space is the same as repeatedly hitting the space bar really quickly. 1980 Classic 12   The same typewriter as above, except instead of being able to select between 1, 2, or 3 spaces per carriage return, now you get 1, 1.5, or 2. This one also has a different typeface, Elite No. 66. Same look as Pica No. 1, but 12 characters per inch. A lot of people don’t like Smith Coronas as much after the early 1960s, but I actually really like this particular one. I love the color, and I think the smaller typeface looks better on the page than the usual 10 character per inch type. After this, though, Smith Corona moved away from manual typewriters and metal bodies and leaned heavily into electric typewriters with plastic frames, and the overall quality dropped. Olivetti Studio 46   My most recent purchase. I love this goddamn typewriter. Look at this loving thing. Look at its futuristic design and techno rear end typeface. It’s a big wedge of aluminum and steel and the type looks like the future we were promised but that never actually arrived. This is technically a portable typewriter, but it’s large and the case would be even larger except the one I bought didn’t have its case. This one was manufactured in Spain for the Spanish language market, so it has all the diacritics you’d expect. The Spanish made Olivettis used a different serial numbering system than the Italian made ones, so the manufacturing year is a guess. The typeface is called Quadrato, and is actually kind of hard to find. Most of the Studio 46s use a standard Pica type. Those are my typewriters. Do you have typewriters?
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Oct 10, 2025 01:02
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you have typewriters but what about someone who Is one?
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Oct 10, 2025 01:04
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I love the art deco look of the first one, and the 1980 one looks like it combines to be part of the OG Gundam Thank you for sharing your typewriters they're legitimately cool
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Oct 10, 2025 01:05
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Where do u get your typewriters
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Oct 10, 2025 01:06
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nerd
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Oct 10, 2025 01:07
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Mods are on route
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Oct 10, 2025 01:08
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Cool thread OP! I have stupid new typewriters. Word processor? There’s a company called freewrite that makes cloud connected “smart” typewriters that break when you look at them funny and cost too much. I wrote off my second freewrite product as a dead piece of junk yesterday and will never use them again. Today I went back to my trusty Alphasmart Neo 2 that runs off 3 AAs and just works because it was built for middle schoolers and not theoretical origami people. It feels good to type on and I will type more on it later about all my worries.
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Oct 10, 2025 01:10
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My parents had an automatic typewriter when I was a kid. Don’t think about it much otherwise but I do remember the carriage return sound and the weird impressions the backspace key left on the paper. And the noise now that I’m thinking about it
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Oct 10, 2025 01:21
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My brother had a word processor in the 90s that had a floppy disk port. You would type and edit on a lovely 2 line LCD display, then press print and it would go nuts making your paper. I learned to type in highschool in "keyboarding" class, and we used actual factual typewriters. I heard they got rid of them a year later for old computers, probably those all in one Macs.
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Oct 10, 2025 01:26
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Lil Swamp Booger Baby posted:Where do u get your typewriters A mix, some thrift stores, some online like goodwill or ebay. If you don't feel like getting into amateur typewriter repair, it's best to find one in a physical shop that you can test out before buying. Goodwill's online site always has a lot of typewriters at decent prices but you don't know how well they'll work until they arrive. Ebay has more clearly functional typewriters but prices are a lot higher. There are also places that have fully restored machines, but you'll be paying $800-$1000+ For comparison, the Classic 12s were each $10 + $30ish in shipping from goodwill.
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Oct 10, 2025 01:27
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How do you delete typos on these things?
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Oct 10, 2025 14:24
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super sweet best pal posted:How do you delete typos on these things? white out
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Oct 10, 2025 14:39
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big nipples big life posted:white out oh man, so many vivid memories of painstakingly whiting out many, many errors in my school work (also cutting and pasting was literally cutting and pasting blocks of text lolleroo) edit: my dad was a journalist, and editor of a magazine, when the big switch from analogue to digital occurred. My dad was young enough to adapt quickly, but a lot of older guys were furious (a couple resigned/retired) Buce fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Oct 10, 2025 |
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Oct 10, 2025 15:02
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Typewriters are mechanical keyboards for people who thought the world of computer mechanical keyboards wasn't grognard-y enough
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Oct 10, 2025 15:35
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typewriter grogs probably give mechanical keyboard guys a wedgie and slam them in a locker.
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Oct 10, 2025 15:37
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Ive always liked typewriters but I've never owned one personally. They are very satisfying to use though.
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Oct 10, 2025 15:38
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Very cool, thanks for sharing
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Oct 10, 2025 15:49
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ok but how do i get my posts from there to in front of people
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Oct 10, 2025 16:10
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irish lald posted:ok but how do i get my posts from there to in front of people 
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Oct 10, 2025 16:11
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That is a great collection you have. I have an Underwood No5 and a Corona "portable" in a nifty suitcase which my daughter uses when she's feeling creative. Typewriters are cool.
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Oct 10, 2025 16:18
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 Nice collection, Op. I grew up using something like this Olivetti to laboriously type up papers for school.
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Oct 10, 2025 16:39
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Pigsfeet on Rye posted:
If you're under the age of 100 I would seriously have given you mad poo poo in high school for this.
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Oct 10, 2025 16:41
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Is the 1 next to the P?
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Oct 10, 2025 16:46
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Typewriters are absolutely rad as hell. That's why I have nine of them! My main machine is a 1961 Royal FP - about thirty pounds, extreme beast. Royal made good typewriters; too bad the ones they make now are awful.
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Oct 10, 2025 16:56
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super sweet best pal posted:How do you delete typos on these things? big nipples big life posted:white out This, or there's correction tape, or you can get ribbons that are black/correction instead of black/red. Mostly I just use mine to send letters though, so I just XXXXX over any glaring errors. Pigsfeet on Rye posted:
GTD Aquitaine posted:Typewriters are absolutely rad as hell. That's why I have nine of them! My main machine is a 1961 Royal FP - about thirty pounds, extreme beast. Royal made good typewriters; too bad the ones they make now are awful. man, I wish I had the space to grab a full sized standard typewriter or two, I love how solid they are.
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Oct 10, 2025 17:06
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super sweet best pal posted:How do you delete typos on these things? I don’t know how it worked but the delete button removed the last character mostly Did you all know that a new line character is often referred to as a “carriage return” in reference to the typewriter carriage going all the way back to the right side to start a new line Pretty cool huh, hope that helps you win your next trivia night (it won’t they’re doing Rick & Morty trivia again)
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Oct 10, 2025 17:23
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE0U018Copw Obligatory Technology Connections video. The analog erase key is cool. One of my past managers said he wrote his doctoral dissertation on a semi-digital word processor (had a digital display for one line, allowing corrections, then it typed that line onto the page).
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Oct 10, 2025 18:27
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Sir Mat of Dickie posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE0U018Copw my mom had one of those, to replace her whirring motor-assisted electric one. it was pretty cool. think it was sold as a word processor rather than a mere typewriter
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Oct 10, 2025 18:29
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Smugworth posted:I don’t know how it worked but the delete button removed the last character mostly I do know that thanks to my Visual Basic class in high school! VbCrLF - starts a new line. Stands for Carriage Return Line Feed
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Oct 10, 2025 18:35
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for more.
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we recline we think  we write  we correct errors with nail polish  we try different things  sometimes it works and sometimes people get mad  we assemble  we produce  our typewriter breaks we are sad  our typewriter is broken and we are sad
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Oct 10, 2025 18:51
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Smugworth posted:Did you all know that a new line character is often referred to as a “carriage return” in reference to the typewriter carriage going all the way back to the right side to start a new line Meant to say left side i have right left dyslexia
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Oct 10, 2025 18:52
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Loden Taylor posted:A mix, some thrift stores, some online like goodwill or ebay. If you don't feel like getting into amateur typewriter repair, it's best to find one in a physical shop that you can test out before buying. Goodwill's online site always has a lot of typewriters at decent prices but you don't know how well they'll work until they arrive. Ebay has more clearly functional typewriters but prices are a lot higher. There are also places that have fully restored machines, but you'll be paying $800-$1000+ For comparison, the Classic 12s were each $10 + $30ish in shipping from goodwill. Is there a model that was fairly common and reliable and is often resold today? What's the workhorse of the typewriting world
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Oct 10, 2025 18:56
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I love office scenes in old movies where you hear a small army of typewriters going off constantly.
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Oct 10, 2025 19:11
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Looking to buy an antique portable typewriter OP?
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Oct 10, 2025 19:29
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I got a remington from I think 29. It's such a cool machine but the hammers don't seem to impress hard enough to leave much of a mark. Took it over to a 90 year old lady and she couldn't get it working great either.
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Oct 10, 2025 19:58
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I'm looking for advice in other words, op
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Oct 10, 2025 19:59
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If you know what specific model of typewriter it is, there's probably a user manual or even a technician's repair manual online somewhere that could tell you if that kind of thing is an easy fix. If you don't, post a picture and we can figure it out
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Oct 10, 2025 21:19
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I have typewriters too. My favorite is this completely ridiculous Oliver No. 9.
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Oct 10, 2025 21:36
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Lil Swamp Booger Baby posted:Is there a model that was fairly common and reliable and is often resold today? What's the workhorse of the typewriting world There's not really any one model these days, it's just kind of a question of what you're doing with it and what you like the look and feel of. As far as manual typewriters go, I think the sweet spot is anything from one of the major manufacturers like Royal, Smith-Corona, Olivetti, Brother, Underwood, Remington, etc. from about 1950-1970. Earlier than that, and the rubber bits will probably be hard as rock and you may have problems getting the paper to feed properly. Past 1970/1980 you get a lot more plastic bodies and the durability drops. As far as sizes go, they come in ultra-portable, portable, and standard. Ultra-portables are small, lightweight models that either come with a slim case or are built to have an attachable lid with a handle. They're good for travel or easy storage, but don't hold up well to heavy use, plus they tend to slide around on the desk a lot while you're using them. Portables are bigger and also come with cases, but they're more robust and durable. Standards are the big, heavy desktop models. If you're going to be doing a lot of writing on one, you'll want at least a portable, if not a standard. The actual workhorse was probably the IBM Selectric, like the one in the video posted earlier, but I don't know a ton about electric typewriters. e: here's a database of typewriters by manufacturer and serial number, if you need to find out when one was made: https://typewriterdatabase.com/. There's also photo references. djed.f.re posted:
I remember your zine on Etruscan Antiques Forgery. Hope you can get it repaired, that zine owned. Milo and POTUS posted:I'm looking for advice in other words, op If the hammers are sluggish or aren't making it all the way to the paper, they might be gummed up with old ink. If you haven't already, you could try squirting some mineral spirits into the type basket at the base of each of the hammers and pressing each key several times to work it in until it loosens up any gunk in there, then use some air duster to blow out the excess and dry it off. Beyond that, Xavier University keeps an archive of typewriter user's and repair manuals. You might have luck there: https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-manuals.html. Otherwise there's channels like Phoenix Typewriter, which I like because with video it can be a bit easier to actually tell what bits you should be loving with: https://www.youtube.com/@phoenixtypewriter2136/featured. Loden Taylor fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Oct 10, 2025 |
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Oct 10, 2025 21:45
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1-600-DOCTORB posted:I have typewriters too. My favorite is this completely ridiculous Oliver No. 9. gently caress that's sexy as hell
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Oct 10, 2025 23:43
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