typecast #10

A bit of a splash!

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Just my type

I'm a graphic designer by profession and, though you'd never guess, fonts are my stock in trade. I have to admit never giving much thought to the fonts used on typewriters. Even now, I wouldn't have a clue how to identify the fonts on any machine I own but I'm sure further digging in the Typosphere would help. There's a lot of enthusiasm among some typerati for certain fonts - just recently schordzi's industrial archaeology resurrected Spencerian. Blazing a trail from analogue obsolescence to a bright, if contraversial, digital future. So, I thought readers might be interested in this book. I read Just My Type a few months ago and thought it was really interesting and would make a good primer for anyone with a developing interest in typefaces, the thinking behind them and the use - and misuse - to which they are put. Typewriters, Dymo and Letraset (remember Letraset?) all get a mention in passing, but the book concentrates mostly on printers' fonts, from Guttenberg to the present day. If you haven't read it, you can download a publisher's sample here. [3.6Mb pdf]

Rush hour

I went for a walk between typecasts...

typecast #9

typecast #8

Slanted #11

A little light reading: typewriter special edtion

typecast #7

Milestone

Not that anyone's counting, and at the risk of trumpet blowing - ta daa - a thousand views! Thanks.

Boris

I spent part of today working on some post cards for a client, Fundraising Training Ltd.. That's right, printed cards - not everything happens online - some people call it 'marketing collateral'. One of their courses is The Art of Persuasive Writing and I had to come up with a character-driven set of images, of which this is one...

Boris the robot with his machine-made words

typecast #6

Answers, as they say, on the back of a post-card. Or just use the comments box below.

The Typosphere

typecast #5

[we]'b-log

Is there any virtue in rigorously blogging daily? The word 'journal' implies daily, but web-log? The measurement from a trailing ship's log would have been measured at least twice daily - the original rolling news? No log - no way of knowing how fast you are travelling. Unimportant in itself, but essential to know your whereabouts. Yikes, 2 minutes to go...

Many boats have something like this screwed to the bottom - even carbon-fibre racing shells. This one would have been thrown over the side several times a day.

typecast #4

Short and sweet?

From my Remington Model 5

Royal butchery

So it goes.

Another tab never to be set.

typecast #3

Apologies in advance for the lo-def... had to beat the midnight deadline!

Next best?

Consider this, another use for an iPad: miTypewriter

Thread-bare

Anyone know where I can get replacement ribbon for a Blick Universal/Klein Adler? Because of the horizontal striking action, and being a three-bank, the type-head depth calls for a 3/4" ribbon. Is this unique to this machine? Was 3/4" the Betamax of Golden Age Saxony? I re-inked this ribbon with a tube of ballpoint ink with some success - but it is perforated and becoming thread-bare.

typecast #2

A little bleak but Typewriter Heaven seems as good a place as any.


Circa 1982. From the keys of my Blick Universal

The History of the Typewriter recited by Michael Winslow

History of the typewriter recited by Michael Winslow from SansGil—Gil Cocker on Vimeo.

Ignacio Uriarte

Priceless!

The Typosphere...

...of typecasters. Find out more...

View typosphere in a larger map

Machine à écrire

Encouraged by The Reverend Ted Munk's investigation into the typewriters of Cronenberg's The Naked Lunch, I looked up the machine a ecrire which led Antoine Doinel astray in Truffaut's Les 400 coups (1959).

© Les Films du Carrosse

# Wednesday

'ache/Ash Weds: Closer to typecast, the apprentice wrestles with Bruce Green.

Renaissance or what?

CC: flickr.com/belfegore

I can't remember who it was in the last few weeks who raised an eyebrow, possibly both, at the idea of:

1. Being remotely interested in typewriting
2. Assuming anybody else would be

Check this out.
Then Check this out.

Pretty recent too.

Typewriter Hell

©Leon Cmielewski

Oil bodkin

Here's an oil can which arrived in the lid of a Corona 4. The oil in it has a fragrant eucalyptus scent. Over-oiling was the curse of many a typewriter. It congeals to a sticky mess over the decades. The flat-ended applicator bodkin is meant to administer the smallest of drops. Looks like a mini-dipstick.

Length: 90mm

Home keys

Early 20th century reference card for the would-be typist. I'm still a two fingers and a thumb luddite.

©Pitman's

Naming the parts

© 1919 Underwood Typewriter Company Inc, NY

Double page spread in the back of my user manual for an Underwood three-bank portable.

Click image to supersize.

Margin bells ring in Mumbai

©AFP

Phil Hazlewood writes: MUMBAI, Wednesday 23 February 2011 - Purushottan H. Sakhare perches on a wall by a Mumbai pavement, slips a sheet of green paper behind the roller of his battered typewriter and winds it into position with two deft flicks of the wrist. 

Read more...

typecast #1

Plug 'n' Play

Another good use for an old iPad, now the iPad 2 is almost here.

All done

Nancy made a bee-line for The Good Companion

Unless I find a typewriter under the bed or in a cupboard, and until the next one comes along, I've done taking photos. If you enjoy looking at this collection, please comment and share a link. Surprised it only came to 22 machines. Here's my wish list - keep your eyes open and drop me a note if you stumble upon any of the following:

• Oliver 3 or 5
• Anything in bakelite
• 1970's Olivetti Valentine
• Hermes 3000 (curvy, like this one)
• Bennett
• Corona 4 in Lavender and Rose Gold
• Blickensderfer 6 (featherweight)

...that'll do for now.

Getting there

Blick Universal under the spotlight

Only half a dozen or so more machines to photograph and upload:

• Corona Junior
• Corona 3
• Antares Parva (from 1960s Italy)
• Underwood 4-bank in hnd painted brown (yuk)
• Remington Home Portable
• Remington Rand Model 1
• Remington Portable Model 5 (streamline)
• Imperial Good Companion (from Leicester)
• Corona 4 (the organ donor)

Dymo-might

Down to my last roll of 9mm Dymo tape - started to panic, then found this on Amazon!