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Tiny Typewriter

business cards, memos and post-its, hurrah !
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The TT looks like (and is) a 4" wide frontstrike typewriter and operates in the same fashion, with moving platen, clattering steel tendrils and little bell noises to signify end-of-line, before a carriage return. A tiny stylus is provided to hit the working tiny keys, but it's meant for USB operation.

As we all know, the only reason tiny typewriters never hit the big time is because tiny typewriters can only produce tiny print, and not everybody has caught the eyeloupe-as-fashion-accessory bug yet.

The Tiny Typewriter gets around this obstacle by using a subcharacter font - bits and pieces of letters and numbers - for the typeblocks, which print in an overstrike fashion, eg: to print a capital "A", the machine prints in sequence / \ - all in the same spot.

Which means the typeblocks are smaller, both in number and size, yet produce a full-sized typeface. As a pleasing side-effect in an occasional use printer, a long flurry of clattering is produced for each word typed.

Currently available in Underwood and Smith-Corona. IBM Selectric is in pre-order status.

FlyingToaster, May 18 2015

I believe the US is working on this already. http://www.dailymai...er-Worlds-Fair.html
[MaxwellBuchanan, May 20 2015]

usb type writer http://gadgetsin.co...ble_with_ipad_1.jpg
like this? [xenzag, May 20 2015]

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       Pocket-sized ASR-33 ? Gotta love that … [+]
8th of 7, May 18 2015
  

       I want one.
blissmiss, May 18 2015
  

       The tiniest typewriter ever made for actual use was the East German "Erika" MFS-MT1 ("Erika" was the manufacturer; MT is an abbreviation for "small portable" in German, I think).   

       It was developed exclusively for the use of security officials*. It had about the footprint of a small paperback book, and was about 2 inches tall. It had only capital letters, digits (excluding 1 and 0, for which I and O could be used instead), space, comma and full stop; and the shift key was used to switch between characters (eg., shifting from "A" gave a different letter). This meant there were only about 20 keys, so they could be of useable size in the small space available.   

       (*interesting aside: in East Germany, all typewriters used by "ordinary" people had to be registered, and the government kept specimens of the writing produced by every individual typewriter. This was so that type- written writings could be traced to their source by examining the small flaws and irregularities peculiar to each machine - sort of like ballistic forensics.)
MaxwellBuchanan, May 18 2015
  

       I do like the idea of a USB-ready typewriter. Tiny or no.
bungston, May 19 2015
  

       A USB ready typewriter - love that idea. Tap away on your laptop, and a real typewriter printer renders the text as you type. Dings at each carriage return. Requires RSI defeating work breaks at the end of each page, while you feed in another sheet. Gimme!
sofacrat, May 20 2015
  

       Hmm, interesting - I'm not sure about necessarily being used for achieving tinyness - but a 7, 14 or 16-segment type- writer should be able to do what you're talking about using an already standardised display model.
zen_tom, May 20 2015
  

       Ten, one for each finger!
pocmloc, May 20 2015
  

       Ours goes to eleven.
bungston, May 20 2015
  

       A tinier typewriter still could have a single dot key, and operate as a manual dot matrix printer, the carriage return moving the paper down one matrix pixel.
calum, May 20 2015
  

       26 tiny typewriters, each endowed with 1 key, each with 1 letter of the alphabet. Each machine is loaded with a long reel of little square sticky labels.   

       Type your letter, pull the carriage return key, unpeel the freshly-typed sticker, and affix it onto your work next to the previous letter.   

       You can order more typewriters to get capitals, numbers, and special characters. Collect the whole set!
pocmloc, May 20 2015
  

       /A tinier typewriter still/ I like that one. That is a tiny typewriter. This reminds me of the shaggy dog joke. "Mmm. I've seen tinier".
bungston, May 21 2015
  

       //a 7, 14 or 16-segment type- writer // saving that one for the "tiny adding machine".
FlyingToaster, May 23 2015
  

       Font Size = .2 --- This Could Work!! [+]
Grogster, May 23 2015
  


 

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