Editing Typewriter (section)

==== Keyboards for other languages ====
[[File:Lettera 22 2.JPG|thumb|Italian typewriter [[Olivetti Lettera 22]]]]
[[File:آلة كاتبة قديمة 01.jpg|thumb|Arabic typewriter [[Imperial Typewriter Company]]]]

The keyboards for other Latin languages are broadly similar to QWERTY but are optimised for the relevant orthography. In addition to some changes in the order of letters, perhaps the most obvious is the presence of [[precomposed character]]s and [[diacritic]]s.

Many non-Latin alphabets have keyboard layouts that have nothing to do with QWERTY. The Russian layout, for instance, puts the common trigrams ыва, про, and ить on adjacent keys so that they can be typed by rolling the fingers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Purcell |first=Edward T. |date=1974 |title=Computer-Controlled Drills for First-Year Russian |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/306437 |journal=The Slavic and East European Journal |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=56–68 |doi=10.2307/306437 |jstor=306437 |issn=0037-6752|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Text in the [[Arabic alphabet]] is written from right to left (rather than from left to right): consequently, the carriage on an Arabic typewriter moves to the right after each keystroke.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arabic Selectric |url=https://www.phillytypewriter.com/arabic-selectric.html#/ |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=PHILLY TYPEWRITER |language=en}}</ref> In Arabic script, letters take different shapes depending upon their position in the word and whether they are connected to a preceding letter. A special key is used to allow switching between independent and connected letters.<ref>{{Cite web |last=مؤلف |date=2017-02-13 |title=The Arabic Alphabet: A Guide to the Phonology and Orthography of MSA and Lebanese Arabic |url=https://www.lebanesearabicinstitute.com/arabic-alphabet/ |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=Lebanese Arabic Institute |language=en-US}}</ref>

Typewriters were also made for [[East Asian languages]] with thousands of characters, such as [[Chinese typewriter|Chinese]] or [[Japanese typewriter|Japanese]]. They were not easy to operate, but professional typists used them for a long time until the development of electronic word processors and [[laser printer]]s in the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Makinen |first=Julie |date=2016-09-03 |title=Before the computer, there was something almost as complex: the Chinese typewriter |url=https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-chinese-typewriter-snap-story.html |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>