Typewriter sales grew fast and manufacturers offered typefaces for different scripts. In America, the National Office Machine Dealer Association periodically published the Blue Book, a catalog with type samples and other information about the industry. The new printing devicesвЂ‰-вЂ‰the golf ball and, later on, the daisy wheel in electronic machinesвЂ‰-вЂ‰also introduced the possibility of using several fonts in the same machine, so the typist could create richer typographic compositions.Д®very company had its own font library with a significant range of styles that fulfilled usersвЂ™ varying needs. However, these first attempts were not successful it wasnвЂ™t until the arrival of the electric models that fonts with several character widths had a visible presence in typewriters. Dwiggins worked on the design of proportional type for Remington Rand. Cassandre and Imre Reiner designed two typefaces that included four different widths for the Olivetti Graphika. But even before the appearance of the IBM Selectric in 1961, manufacturers had already made a few trials for the use of proportional fonts in mechanical models. Proportional type was widely used in electric and electronic machines. The shiftless alphabets were mainly used for advertising, telegrams, and financial work and the italic and script faces were intended for informal documents like personal correspondence.ДЄd for the Olivetti Graphika, вЂњthe first manually operated standard typewriter with proportional spacing.вЂќ Source: The Economist, Nov. There were typefaces created for particular purposes, such as protective writing that perforated paper instead of inking it. Sans serif, script, and italic fonts were also included in early typewriter-font catalogs. This type style quickly spread, but it was not the only option available. The design of the characters and the printing differences among models were used back then for typewriting identification. Most companies had their own Pica typeface, a monospaced font that fit ten characters to the inch. The shiftless alphabet used in the first commercially manufactured typewriter was soon replaced by a slab-serif design, which would become the unofficial standard among manufacturers in the first half of the 20th century. In the course of the history of typewritersвЂ‰-вЂ‰roughly 100 yearsвЂ‰-вЂ‰the typefaces designed for the machine grew in number and evolved in shape. Can typewriter be considered a style? If so, what features define a typewriter typeface? To answer these questions, we need to consider two perspectives: the termвЂ™s historical origin and its current usage. Nowadays, we often see the word вЂњtypewriterвЂќ used as a qualifier for certain typefaces. However, there may be some confusion about the use of these two terms together.

We all know what вЂњtypewriterвЂќ and вЂњtypefaceвЂќ mean as separate concepts, so thereвЂ™s no need to define them. Photos by MarГa Ramos (bars and wheel) and Olivetti (ball). These were the three mechanisms used for printing type in typewriters. Type bars, golf ball, and daisy wheel for Olivetti typewriters.

Typeface design