Typewriter 101: The ULTIMATE TYPEFACE Guide (ft. Typewriter Chicago)

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Lucas Dul
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[@synthnerd4539]

Just to clarify, typefaces like Old English and Fraktur are also called 'blackletter' - whereas 'gothic' may also indicate a sans serif. Tony Seddon's "Evolution of Type" marks this out as a US thing, but the viewer might want to know why two very different types might both be called 'gothic'. As someone who's spent a lot of hours looking at typefaces for print, when I got into typewriters I found it a bit frustrating at first that some terms seem to be applied differently. Also, was admiring Lucas' reel to reel :)

[@TypewriterChicago]

Ah I do recall the blackletter designation now. There are so many terms. I'm interested in that book by the way, so thanks for the recommendation! Glad ya like the pioneer, sadly my head is blocking my Nakamichi as well.

[@synthnerd4539]

@@TypewriterChicago Nakamichi! Fancy! I'm a Technics fan :) Typeface books are great. One of my favourites is Rookledge's International Type Finder, with the chart that helps you identify types by feature. And I grew up surrounded by Letraset catalogues, so I have a fondness for those :)

[@zeltarstormrun]

I have Olympia sm4 with script typeface from 1961. No idea how rare it might be but the typeface is beautiful. It's a typewriter that just begs to be used, even if the only thing you type up is grocery list lol

[@douglasjackson9058]

Loved this collaboration,such great information. I know nothing about typefaces,now I have a reference. Thankyou 👍

[@winfried3208]

Neat! I didn`t know the typeface rabbithole was as deep! Another great 101!

[@thesuburbanchateau1278]

This is a fantastic video. I learned so much!!! Great to see Lucas and his information was so interesting. How on earth did he have all of those type examples? Also, your editing on this was very engaging- and I appreciated the video from an editing standpoint. Great work!!!

[@TypewriterChicago]

I keep samples of machines I work on every now and then. I'm not disciplined enough to sample EVERY machine I work on, many are identical, but I do have a lot.

[@johnandrewmunroe]

What a brilliant presentation. Lucas is a consummate professional. You both did a fantastic job! Thanks for sharing all this pithy and fun info.

[@tmunk]

Heh, I see Lucas's old Beige box with a Zip drive - pre-Pentium? :D

[@TypewriterChicago]

Pentium iii, but I swapped it for an i7!

[@steveeverett9737]

It was nice to finally meet Lucas! I've heard so much about him. He's certainly an expert in his craft. I don't know why I was texting you but I'm sure it was important! Nice video! Your Dad!

[@justbank5007]

I think I could listen to Lucas all day! 😂 Thank you for the info!

[@lymantria10]

Excellent Sarah & Lucas. Thanks for putting this one together.

[@saulysw]

Thank you both for putting this together, it was really interesting and easy to watch.

[@Kimbopolo]

Wow, interesting! I learned a lot. Lucas is a wonderful guest/resource. Thanks!

[@midlifepublishing]

This was a great history lesson and showcases just how important typefaces are in the typewriter realm. Such a great video!

[@teripittman]

I've read that the eye tends to pass over sans serif letters. So if you want something to be read, you use serif. If you want domeone to gloss over it, use san serif.

[@chrismoore6359]

Such an informative and useful video. Lucas was a great guest, too! Thank you.

[@harryhumstone3149]

Great information thank you for sharing

[@slow.poetry]

Cool video. I believe my Hermes Baby has the Techno typeface, and I absolutely love the look.

[@captainkeyboard1007]

This lady is right. Typewriters have typefaces. Typesetters and computer printers have fonts and typefaces.

[@berniepokorski6608]

Thank you for providing this information! It answers a lot of questions for me. 😉

[@WilliamBoys-y2i]

A typeface I greatly enjoy is my proportionately spaced IBM Executive Model B from 1957. Not only that, it has a micro-elite typeface, giving me about 18 CPI (characters per inch). I was a bit surprised that Lucas didn't even mention IBM Executive typewriters, several of which offer proportional spacing.

[@AtelierDBurgoyne]

This was grrrreat! :) Thanks! Of all the nerdish things to love about typewriters, I think I love typefaces most, followed by keyboard in other languages. I always like to underline (!) that the European typewriter manufacturers used metric pitch typefaces with the pitch in mm per caracter e.g. Hermes Techno 2.2 mm per caracter; Olympia Senatorial 2.3 mm per caracter, etc. Although for the US market, the Hermes and Olympia catalogs and advertisements would present the size in caracters per inch, in reality the line scale was always divided according to caracter size in mm. Daniel

[@michaelringer7027]

Thank you for this video! Which machine has the Vetical Script? Did I miss that? Thanks again.

[@JustMyTypewriter]

Lucas's type sample was from a Smith Corona Standard and the sample is at 12:31

[@michaelringer7027]

@@JustMyTypewriter Thank you!

[@CraigfromOmaha]

Century Gothic is my favorite, but that Vogue… 🤤

[@bonniegale6516]

Good video. Thank you 😊

[@Interrobang2626]

I wonder if there are such variable typefaces for typewriters that use different alphabets like cyrillic for instance (писаћа машина)?

[@kida4star]

This is fantastic! Was English the only language that had this variety?

[@AtelierDBurgoyne]

No, many manufacturers also offered different typefaces in other languages. I am most familiar with languages that use the Roman alphabet (like English, German, French, etc.) but there were also many vatiations of Japanese (Katakana and Hiragana).

[@steviewrites4178]

What specific machines and models used the Gothic typeface?

[@JustMyTypewriter]

I have a silent super from smith corona that does feature that

[@irishing1375]

Is there a way that we change the typeface of our own typewriter? Isn't there a way to customize it?

[@JustMyTypewriter]

You could try and replace all of the type slugs from another machine, but you would have to make sure they were the same size and shape. Alternatively, you could go with a machine that has replacement font elements- like an IBM selectric

[@irishing1375]

@@JustMyTypewriter thank you for the info

[@otiselevator7738]

When IBM came out with the Selectric they needed typefaces for the machine. They were too cheap and arrogant to enlist a real typeface designer. So, their fonts were”designed” by IBM engineers. Other than a nice little Roman font all their fonts look like crap. ‘especially Courier.

[@YamiSatoshi]

As for typewriter typefaces, I've always liked Prestige more than Courier and am a bit disappointed that the former has become comparatively obscure. I also like the Orator typeface as well as the variable-width Essay and Theme typefaces from the Selectric (as well as their take on Univers). Getting really obscure, I like the typestyle of the music typesetting typewriter Olympia Musicwriter, particularly its first iteration that was used in creating sheet music in the '70s and '80s.

[@JustMyTypewriter]

I've been looking for a Musicwriter- I agree the obscurity is very interesting!

[@pattonhorton2072]

Awesome video! There are also some utilitarian typefaces that are rare and unusual. Some military service typewriters and typewriters used by telegram companies have ‘mil’ type which is a sans serif typeface that’s only capitols. This was done for the purpose of legibility during translation. There’s also pin-point typeface, which is super cool. I actually have a Remington 12 with one. It’s also typically sans-serif, sometimes only capitals, but is completely composed of pin-points. This was used in writing cheques and receipts as the texture created when typing prevents forgery. I think different typefaces are so cool. They’re awesome to incorporate in writing pieces, assignments, and letters.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

The "Techno" style Typeface is also used on some of the east german Robotron Typewriters, like the Cella S 1001 for example. And that's one of my favorites as it is very easy to read and really almost looks like a printed Page.

[@NovaScotiaKevin]

Sarah, I've been a subscriber for quite some time, and your production quality is always on point!

[@JustMyTypewriter]

I appreciate that- thank you!

[@sergiomontes5534]

Wow this turned out to be a good video, Lucas I'm in love with your reel to reel!

[@jumpnrun3368]

Just got a 1960´s Olympia SG3 during a storage cleanout and then found your chanel! Did not know there is an entire community out there dedicated to these marvels!

[@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536]

🌎👍❤

[@rbruce63]

Outstanding! I remember a gothic cursive typeface on a Smith Corona Sterling manual typewriter that belonged to a friend’s father. I used to borrow this machine to type my papers with it forgoing dad’s Corsair. Dad’s Corsair wasn’t in great shape or the ribbon was dry. Perhaps even I didn’t have the right table to type correctly. Anyway I just had dad’s Corsair cleaned-lubricated-adjusted and it makes me so happy!

[@lsvemir27]

Top

[@andrewnicholls5130]

Really interesting discussion. Great stuff! Not sure what my favourite typeface is either. Kind of like the Imperial 60 I have. Very neat and compact typeface.

[@captainkeyboard1007]

This typeface forum is remarkable. I still have an IBM Selectric typewriter and 8 or 10 typeface element [balls] and have not used them since 1991. I do prefer using various printer fonts that are found in the microcomputer. At the same time, I am enhancing my keyboarding accuracy by using the microcomputer. I still have a continual interest in using printer fonts by practicing some typesetting techniques on the computer. Your knowledge of my interesting subject is impressive.

[@marlonsouza9224]

This video… it’s perfect. Wow. I love typefaces. Luckily, from the 4 typewriters I have, 1 have Cursive and another, an “imperial” one that looks like Times News Roman. They are really useful.

[@oldRoyaltypewriter]

IBM Executive variable width typefaces.

[@Boodieman72]

The movie about Helvetica is very interesting.

[@AlexFarlow-m1w]

Old English is my favorite

[@AnxiousGary]

Oh I love the vertical script

[@shakespeareteacher]

A typeface that is very similar to vogue, was put out by the Everest company who made Italian typewriters. The font is called simplicitas. It is rare also and is fun to find on various Italian machines.