Editing Typewriter (section)

=== Standardization ===
By about 1910, the "manual" or "mechanical" typewriter had reached a somewhat [[Standardization|standardized]] design.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mechanical Typewriter Explained: How Typewriters Work |url=https://www.gadgetexplained.com/2015/11/mechanical-typewriter-explained-how.html |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=Gadget Explained – Reviews Gadgets Electronics Tech}}</ref> There were minor variations from one manufacturer to another, but most typewriters followed the concept that each key was attached to a typebar that had the corresponding letter molded, in reverse, into its striking head.  When a key was struck briskly and firmly, the typebar hit a ribbon (usually made of [[ink]]ed [[Cloth|fabric]]), making a printed mark on the paper wrapped around a cylindrical [[platen]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McCormack |first=Harry S. |date=2 May 1907 |title=Type-Writing Machine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4x1LAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA385 |journal=Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office |volume=134 |pages=385}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of Typewriters |url=https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-history.html |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=The Classic Typewriter Page}}</ref>

The platen was mounted on a carriage that moved horizontally to the left, automatically advancing the typing position, after each character was typed. The carriage-return lever at the far left was then pressed to the right to return the carriage to its starting position and rotating the platen to advance the paper vertically. A small bell was struck a few characters before the right hand margin was reached to warn the operator to complete the word and then use the carriage-return lever.<ref name="The Remington Type-Writing Machine"/> Typewriters for languages written [[right-to-left]] operate in the opposite direction.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2003-01-23 |title=The typewriter: an informal history |url=https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/modelb/modelb_informal.html |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=IBM Archives |language=en-US}}</ref>

By 1900, notable typewriter manufacturers included [[E. Remington and Sons]], [[IBM]], [[Godrej Group|Godrej]],<ref>{{Cite news |title=The archives times – March – April 2013 – Lost and found, a 1984 photo revives those times |publisher=Godrej archives |url=http://www.archives.godrej.com/assets/pdf/The_Archives_Times_Mar_Apr_2013.pdf |access-date=18 March 2019}}</ref> [[Imperial Typewriter Company]], [[Oliver Typewriter Company]], [[Olivetti]], [[Royal Typewriter Company]], [[Smith Corona]], [[Underwood Typewriter Company]], [[Facit]], [[Adler (cars and motorcycle)|Adler]], and <!--{{Ill|de|Olympia Werke}}-->[[Olympia-Werke]].<ref>Silver Reed{{Cite web |title=From behind the scenes – Godrej Prima and the Stenographers handbook |url=http://www.archives.godrej.com/assets/pdf/Steno's_Handbook.pdf |access-date=18 March 2019 |website=www.archives.godrej.com |publisher=Godrej archives}}</ref>

After the market had matured under the market dominance of large companies from Britain, Europe and the United States—but before the advent of daisywheel and electronic machines—the typewriter market faced strong competition from less expensive typewriters from Asia, including [[Brother Industries]] and [[Silver Seiko Ltd.]] of Japan.

==== Frontstriking ====
[[File:Daugherty typewriter (Martin Howard Collection).jpg|thumb|Daugherty typewriter, 1893]]

In most of the early typewriters, the typebars struck upward against the paper and pressed against the bottom of the [[platen]] ([[#Understrike|understrike]]), so the typist could not see the text as it was typed.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lyons |first1=Martyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mhUwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA205 |title=Approaches to the History of Written Culture: A World Inscribed |last2=Marquilhas |first2=Rita |date=2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-54136-5 |language=en}}</ref> What was typed was not visible until a carriage return caused it to scroll into view.

The difficulty with any other arrangement was ensuring the typebars fell back into place reliably when the key was released. This was eventually achieved with various ingenious mechanical designs and so-called "visible typewriters" which used frontstriking, in which the typebars struck forward against the front side of the platen, which became standard. One of the first front-strike typewriters was the Daugherty Visible, introduced in 1893. 

==== Four-bank keyboard ====
The Daugherty Visible also introduced the four-bank keyboard, which also became standard, although the Underwood, which came out two years later, was the first ''major'' typewriter to support frontstriking and a four-bank keyboard.<ref name="Robert1">{{Cite web |last=Robert |first=Paul |title=Daugherty |url=http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/index.php3?machine=daugh&cat=kf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110729132951/http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/index.php3?machine=daugh&cat=kf |archive-date=July 29, 2011 |access-date=July 5, 2012 |website=Collection |publisher=The Virtual Typewriter Museum}}</ref><ref name="Seaver1">{{Cite web |last=Seaver |first=Alan |year=2011 |title=Daugherty Visible |url=http://machinesoflovinggrace.com/ptf/VisDaughertyPittsburg.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511211636/http://machinesoflovinggrace.com/ptf/VisDaughertyPittsburg.html |archive-date=May 11, 2013 |access-date=July 5, 2012 |website=Machines of Loving Grace website |publisher=Alan Seaver}}</ref>

==== Shift key ====
[[File:Remington 2 typewriter keyboard.jpg|thumb|Remington #2 typewriter keyboard. Note the shift keys bottom-left and top-right. 1878.]]
[[File:Comparison_of_Full-Keyboard,_Single-Shift,_and_Double-Shift_Typerwriters_in_1911.png|thumb|A 1911 comparison of then-current full-keyboard (left), single-shift (middle), and double-shift typewriters (right)]]

A significant innovation was the [[shift key]], introduced with the [[E. Remington and Sons|Remington]] No. 2 in 1878. This key physically "shifted" either the basket of typebars, in which case the typewriter is described as "basket shift", or the paper-holding carriage, in which case the typewriter is described as "carriage shift".<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Mark |first1= Adams on |date=October 24, 2013 |title=Remington Standard No. 2: 'Lower Case' vs. 'Shift Key'? |url=https://type-writer.org/?p=1765 |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=Type-Writer.org |language=en-US}}</ref> Either mechanism caused a different portion of the typebar to come in contact with the ribbon/platen.

The result is that each typebar could type two different characters, cutting the number of keys and typebars in half (and simplifying the internal mechanisms considerably). The obvious use for this was to allow letter keys to type both [[Letter case|upper and lower case]], but normally the number keys were also duplexed, allowing access to special symbols such as percent, {{char|%}}, and ampersand, {{char|&}}.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Typing Through Time: Keyboard History |url=https://www.daskeyboard.com/blog/typing-through-time-the-history-of-the-keyboard/ |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=Das Keyboard Mechanical Keyboard Blog |language=en-US}}</ref>

Before the shift key, typewriters had to have a separate key and typebar for upper-case letters; in essence, the typewriter had two full keyboards, one above the other. With the shift key, manufacturing costs (and therefore purchase price) were greatly reduced, and typist operation was simplified; both factors contributed greatly to mass adoption of the technology.

===== Three-bank typewriters =====
Certain models further reduced the number of keys and typebars by making each key perform three functions—each typebar could type three different characters. These little three-row machines were portable and could be used by journalists.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mosher |first=Charles Philo |date=10 April 1917 |title=Type-Writing Machine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DngbAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA537 |journal=Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office |page=537}}</ref>

Such three-row machines were popular with WWI journalists because they were lighter and more compact than four-bank typewriters, while they could type just as fast and use just as many symbols.<ref>Alan Seaver. [http://sevenels.net/typewriters/3banks.htm "Three-Bank Typewriters"]</ref> To include those symbols, three-row machines like the Bar-Let<ref>[https://www.typewriters101.com/collection.html "My Typewriter Collection: Bar-Let Model 2"].</ref> and the [[Smith Corona#Corona Typewriter Company|Corona]] No. 3 Typewriter<ref>Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
[https://www.si.edu/object/corona-typewriter%3Anmah_849921 "Corona No. 3 Typewriter"]</ref><ref>[https://www.typewriters101.com/store/p430/1921_Corona_Folding_No._3.html "1921 Corona Folding No. 3"].</ref> had two distinct shift keys performing different functions, a "CAP" shift (for uppercase) and a "FIG" shift (for numbers and symbols).<ref>Anthony Casillo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=emcqDwAAQBAJ ''Typewriters: Iconic Machines from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writing''].
2017. pp. 116; 197–198.</ref> They were thus also known as ''double-shift typewriters''.

[[Teletypewriter]]s also often used a three-row typewriter keyboard,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=AuIOu97MduQC "Principles of Telegraphy, Teletypewriter"]. 1967. p. A-15.
"[Murray] used a 5-unit code with two shifts, [and] 
(...) use of a three-row typewriter-style keyboard, with the numerals assigned to the top row of keys. 
Therefore, the numeral 1 had to use the same combination as the letter Q, 2 the same combination as W, etc."</ref>
which looked superficially similar in that it also had two shift keys, "FIGS" (figures) and "LTRS" (letters). However, these [[Murray code]]-based machines generally did not allow each key to perform three functions and were a different technology from double-shift typewriters.{{efn|Unlike shift keys on double-shift typewriters, teletypewriter shift keys were stateful—like [[Shift Lock]]. Typing or transmitting FIGS once shifted all following characters to "figure shift", until LTRS shifted the code back to "letter shift". Hence those two shift keys did not allow teletypewriters to include lower- as well as upper-case characters. A further feature finally allowing that only arrived as a 1988 extension to the Murray-based [[Alphabet 2]] code,<ref>[http://archive.org/details/enf-ascii "The Evolution of Character Codes, 1874-1968"]. 2000. p. 8.</ref> close to that technology's obsolescence.}}

==== Tab key ====
{{Main|Tab key}}

To facilitate typewriter use in business settings, a tab (tabulator) key was added in the late 19th century. Before using the key, the operator had to set mechanical "tab stops" (pre-designated locations to which the carriage would advance when the tab key was pressed). This facilitated the typing of columns of numbers, freeing the operator from the need to manually position the carriage. The first models had one tab stop and one tab key; later ones allowed as many stops as desired, and sometimes had multiple tab keys, each of which moved the carriage a different number of spaces ahead of the decimal point (the tab stop), to facilitate the typing of columns with numbers of different length ($1.00, $10.00, $100.00, etc.) such that the decimal points were vertically aligned. Typically, tab stops could be set by a key-set tabulator control (either by a lever or keys on the keyboard—usually labelled with "+" or "-", or "set" and "clear") or moveable tab stops at the back of the machine, similar to margin stops.

==== Dead keys ====
{{Main|Dead key}}

Languages such as French, Spanish, and German required [[diacritic]]s, special signs attached to or on top of the base letter: for example, a combination of the [[acute accent]] {{char|´}} plus {{char|e}} produced {{char|é}}; {{char|~}} plus {{char|n}} produced {{char|ñ}}. In [[Typesetting#Movable type|metal typesetting]], {{angbr|é}}, {{angbr|ñ}}, and others were separate [[Sort (typesetting)|sorts]]. With mechanical typewriters, the number of whose characters (sorts) was constrained by the physical limits of the machine, the number of keys required was reduced by the use of [[dead keys]]. Diacritics such as {{char|´}} ([[acute accent]]) would be assigned to a [[dead key]], which did not move the [[platen]] forward, permitting another character to be imprinted at the same location; thus a single dead key such as the acute accent could be combined with {{char|a}},{{char|e}},{{char|i}},{{char|o}} and {{char|u}} to produce {{char|á}},{{char|é}},{{char|í}},{{char|ó}} and {{char|ú}}, reducing the number of sorts needed from 5 to 1. The typebars of "normal" characters struck a rod as they moved the metal character desired toward the ribbon and platen, and each rod depression moved the platen forward the width of one character. Dead keys had a typebar shaped so as not to strike the rod.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Smalley |first1=William A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MXM_RL4UWe0C&pg=PA115 |title=Mother of Writing: The Origin and Development of a Hmong Messianic Script |last2=Vang |first2=Chia Koua |last3=Yang |first3=Gnia Yee |date=1990|publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-76287-6 |language=en}}</ref>

==== Character sizes ====
{{further|Point (typography)|Pitch (typewriter)}}

In English-speaking countries, ordinary typewriters printing fixed-width characters were standardized to print six horizontal lines per vertical inch, and had either of two variants of character width, one called ''pica'' for ten characters per horizontal inch and the other ''elite'', for twelve. This differed from the use of these terms in printing, where [[Pica (typography)|pica]] is a linear unit (approximately {{frac|1|6}} of an inch) used for any measurement, the most common one being the height of a typeface.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief Chronology of the Typewriter |url=http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/pro05.htm |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=www.quadibloc.com}}</ref>

==== Color ====
Some ribbons were inked in black and red stripes, each being half the width and running the entire length of the ribbon. A lever on most machines allowed switching between colors, which was useful for bookkeeping entries where negative amounts were highlighted in red. The red color was also used on some selected characters in running text, for emphasis. When a typewriter had this facility, it could still be fitted with a solid black ribbon; the lever was then used to switch to fresh ribbon when the first stripe ran out of ink. Some typewriters also had a third position which stopped the ribbon being struck at all. This enabled the keys to hit the paper unobstructed, and was used for cutting stencils for [[Mimeograph|stencil duplicators]] (aka mimeograph machines).<ref name="MimeoTypewriter">{{Cite web |title=How to prepare a mimeograph stencil by using a typewriter |url=http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/implementaliteracyprogram/howtoprepareamimeographstencil2.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121016144524/http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/implementaliteracyprogram/howtoprepareamimeographstencil2.htm |archive-date=2012-10-16 |access-date=2011-05-10 |website=LinguaLinks Library |publisher=SIL International}}</ref> 

==== "Noiseless" designs ====
[[File:Rapid typewriter, 1890 (Martin Howard Collection).jpg|thumb|Rapid typewriter, 1890]]

The first typewriter to have the sliding type bars (laid out horizontally like a fan) that enable a typewriter to be "noiseless" was the American made Rapid which appeared briefly on the market in 1890. The Rapid also had the remarkable ability for the typist to have entire control of the carriage by manipulation of the keyboard alone. The two keys that achieve this are positioned at the top of the keyboard (seen in the detail image below). They are a "Lift" key that advances the paper, on the platen, to the next line and a "Return" key that causes the carriage to automatically swing back to the right, ready for one to type the new line. So an entire page could be typed without one's hands leaving the keyboard.

In the early part of the 20th century, a typewriter was marketed under the name Noiseless and advertised as "silent". It was developed by Wellington Parker Kidder and the first model was marketed by the Noiseless Typewriter Company in 1917.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Noiseless Portable |url=https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/noiselessportable.html |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=The Classic Typewriter Page}}</ref> Noiseless portables sold well in the 1930s and 1940s, and noiseless standards continued to be manufactured until the 1960s.<ref name="ja" />

In a conventional typewriter the type bar reaches the end of its travel simply by striking the ribbon and paper. The Noiseless, developed by Kidder, has a complex lever mechanism that decelerates the type bar mechanically before pressing it against the ribbon and paper in an attempt to dampen the noise.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gould |first=R. T. |title=The Modern Typewriter and ITS Probable Future Development |date=1928 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41357995 |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Arts |volume=76 |issue=3940 |pages=717–738 |jstor=41357995 |issn=0035-9114}}</ref>