Overtyping could only get you so far, and pencilling or penning things in after typing was cumbersome and unprofessional.pic.twitter.com/9EYMDQEb6g
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And then, you would press a regular typewriter key. The typebar would swing normally, but then hit the just-inserted character, then the ribbon, and then the paper. In a sense, Typit functioned almost like a parasite.pic.twitter.com/w0oJZJ8aXP
(A rather momentary parasite. Typit creator promised printing any character should take only ~4 seconds, with the quality identical as the typewriter’s “native” text.)pic.twitter.com/CZHIPU4z6x
Some 1,500 characters were available, effectively creating the only “typewriter Unicode” I know of – math symbols, different alphabets, fractions, even keys your old typewriter might be missing (e.g. digit 1 or &). It seems each character would cost you about $10.pic.twitter.com/ZOurxR8Xxm
The system was in use in between 1950s and 1980s. I don’t think it was very popular, despite many ads in electronics, chemical, and other scientific periodicals – and despite some marketing gimmicks, like this one from 1970.pic.twitter.com/3vZbI9oiad
There was even Typit II, actually compatible with the Selectric ball typewriters, a font-swapping tech coexisting with a character-swapping one.pic.twitter.com/PRcuFZHlFw
Eventually both, and all the others, were undone by computers which allowed for 31 characters, then 63, then 127, then 255, and now god knows how many via Unicode. Early on, it happened did with Alt+numeric keypad combination (still works on Win – and Mac after enabling it)…pic.twitter.com/DjDExyDKXU
…and then via graphical user interfaces and touch screens. But that’s a whole different story.pic.twitter.com/alSDuedsAu
I love that Typit existed. It’s such a weird hack, and a clever way to solve a particular problem. It’s kind of like a Chrome extension or a Greasemonkey script for typewriters, once again blurring the lines. And speaking of which, I like it for one other reason:
It is a proof that “press any key to continue” existed in the world before computers.
(BTW this thread is dedicated to the hard work and inspiration that is @shadychars.)
(I realize now that I forgot to do the most important visual juxtaposition – and notice that even the sizes of both containers are rather similar!)pic.twitter.com/6ypL074Oyv
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