I love that this extends to the modern software keyboard where the shift key is now an actual arrow pointing to the metaphoric 'upper case'.https://twitter.com/roaringgirle/status/916714059965390848 …
Writing a book about the history of keyboards: http://aresluna.org/shift-happens · Design manager @figmadesign · Typographer · Occasional speaker · He/him
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Kevin Fox 🦊 😷 Retweeted claire m. l. bourne
I love that this extends to the modern software keyboard where the shift key is now an actual arrow pointing to the metaphoric 'upper case'.https://twitter.com/roaringgirle/status/916714059965390848 …
Kevin Fox 🦊 😷 added,
Ooh, I like that. Upper case within the key cap.
Didn't the shift key physically (and visibly) move the platen up, since the upper case letters were higher on the typebar arm?
But this begs the question -- when did the first keyboard use an arrow instead of "shift"?
A good question, and leading to the bigger answer of which 'upper' were they implying. My guess is the phone kbds are implying 'upper case'.
As far as I know without digging very deep, the arrow is solely a computer invention, plus started with European keyboards.
American keyboards said/say “Shift,” as did typewriters before – but very often, they left Shift and Shift Lock blank.
Here’s IBM 3276/7/8 from 1970s with great iconography all around, even for Insert and Delete.pic.twitter.com/7qQMY3kQdq
The tradition might have started there or shortly before. IBM PC 1981 keyboard continued this with:pic.twitter.com/LofeaGFxBq
And they got weird symbol pushback in America, so eventually IBM switched to arrow for Europe, “Shift” for America, and then a hybrid.pic.twitter.com/6KRIDSZJkS
So, the arrow might have really just stood for “look at the key legend higher up,” never related to the mechanical roots of shifting.
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