Editing Typewriter (section)

{{Short description|Mechanical device for typing characters}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}

[[File:MEK II-371.jpg|thumb|Mechanical typewriters, such as this 1930s [[Underwood Typewriter Company|Underwood]], were long-time standards in government agencies, newsrooms, and offices.]]
[[File:Collections in Motion- Valentine Typewriter.webm|thumb|This late 1960s [[Olivetti Valentine]] typewriter designed by [[Ettore Sottsass]] became a pop-culture icon.<ref name="sottsass">{{cite web |author=Rosario Spagnolello |date=May 28, 2020 |title=Valentine, Italy's Iconic Ruby Red Typewriter |url=https://www.elledecor.com/it/best-of/a32701120/olivetti-valentine-history/ |publisher=Elle Decor}}</ref>]]
A '''typewriter''' is a [[Machine|mechanical]] or [[electromechanical]] machine for [[typing]] characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of [[Button (control)|keys]], and each one causes a different single character to be produced on [[paper]] by striking an [[ink ribbon|inked ribbon]] selectively against the paper with a [[Sort (typesetting)|type element]]. Thereby, the machine produces a legible [[written]] document composed of ink and paper. By the end of the 19th century, a ''person'' who used such a device was also referred to as a ''type[[writer]]''.<ref>{{cite OED2|typewriter (2)|volume=18|page=789}}</ref>

The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874,<ref>{{Cite book |first=James W. |last=Cortada |title=Before the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand and the Industry They Created, 1865–1956 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4008-7276-3 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dbl9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT38  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626060339/https://books.google.com/books?id=dbl9BgAAQBAJ&pg=PT38 |archive-date=2018-06-26 |url-status=live}}</ref> but did not become common in offices in the [[United States]] until after the mid-1880s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Typewriters |url=https://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227181833/http://www.officemuseum.com/typewriters.htm |archive-date=December 27, 2016 |website=www.officemuseum.com}}</ref> The typewriter quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence. It was widely used by professional writers, in offices, in business correspondence in private homes, and by students preparing written assignments.

Typewriters were a standard fixture in most offices up to the 1980s. After that, they began to be largely supplanted by personal computers running [[word processing]] software. Nevertheless, typewriters remain common in some parts of the world. For example, typewriters are still used in many [[India]]n cities and towns, especially in roadside and legal offices, due to a lack of continuous, reliable electricity.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Typewriters, Writing a Social History of Urban India |publisher=The Wire |url=https://thewire.in/books/with-great-truth-and-regards-typewriter |access-date=18 March 2019}}</ref>

The [[QWERTY]] [[keyboard layout]], developed for typewriters in the 1870s, remains the [[de facto standard]] for English-language [[computer keyboards]]. The origins of this layout still need to be clarified.<ref name="Smithsonian"/> Similar typewriter keyboards, with layouts optimised for other languages and orthographies, emerged soon afterward, and their layouts have also become standard for computer keyboards in their respective markets.