Typewriters WPs

The Typewriter

The typewriter is one of the oldest text printing devices ever invented. It is either a mechanical or electromechanical device that has keys, which when pressed results into cleanly printed characters on the loaded medium. A typical typewriter prints one character per keypress. Typewriting devices first came out in the 1860s, when they were indispensable tools for professional writing. The advent of personal computers and word processors has rendered typewriters – even the more advanced electronic versions – obsolete. However, they can still be seen in some offices that find it hard to transition some of their tasks into word processors and computers, as well as for those who want a back-up printing medium in case of power outages.

Types of Typewriter

In addition to manual and electric models, typewriters also come in hybrid designs. Typewriter-printer hybrids were introduced in the 1970s. These printers incorporated the mechanisms of dot-matrix printers with keyboards from existing typewriter models. Electronic typewriters, on the other hand, replaced typeballs with the daisywheel mechanism, which contains disks or 'petals' where the characters are moulded (instead of symbols moulded around a typeball). While typewriters are rarely seen in office environments nowadays, they are still great to have for emergency use.

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