# How did they switch fonts on a typewriter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 4, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958 "2008-11-04T00:45:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/21 "2008-11-04T15:31:35Z")
Would you toddlers quitcher bitchin’ about magnetic storage and help me pick up these frakkin’ punch cards?!?!? ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/22 "2008-11-04T15:40:39Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Would you toddlers quitcher bitchin’ about magnetic storage and help me pick up these frakkin’ punch cards?!?!? Does anyone else remember Christmas wreaths made out of old punch cards??? My first typewriter used a daisywheel and a film ribbon. My mom still used a typewriter with a red and black fabric ribbon until a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/23 "2008-11-04T17:47:13Z")
One of the ways my wife put herself through college was by typing term papers and theses (thesises?) She invested in a real IBM Selectric (later upgraded to an IBM _Correcting_ Selectric. What a joy it was for her to simply switch out the typeball to change typefaces (you may know them as “fonts”) and to shift easily from the large Pica to the smaller Elite. It was a simpler time back then. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/24 "2008-11-04T20:51:52Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > I believe I was the only member of my 1984 college class (of about 100) to write my senior essay on a computer. I used a [Kaypro II](http://oldcomputers.net/kayproii.html), running the CP/M operating system and a word processor called (IIRC) Perfect Writer. Nine-inch monochrome display. Text only, no graphics. No mouse. No multitasking. No modem. NO HARD DISK! Two 640KB floppy drives. You put the floppy with the program on it in drive A and the data disk in drive B. My father worked at IBM and I finally got the nerve to ask for a computer to write my second JP (1988). It was a PC Convertible, I think because the flat blue on gray LCD screen could be changed out for a bigger green on black screen. [http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/attic/images/013.jpg](http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/attic/images/013.jpg) Yep, no hard disk, just a disk (3.5" woot) with WordPerfect and one for the documents. Remarkably, before that I used a Panasonic electronic typewriter (with bold, italics, etc.) rather than an IBM product. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/25 "2008-11-04T20:56:48Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Would you toddlers quitcher bitchin’ about magnetic storage and help me pick up these frakkin’ punch cards?!?!? I hope you numbered them in the first columns, so that you can put them through the card sorter to get them back in order. (And, yes, I have used a card sorter to sort punched cards: big noisy things they were.) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/26 "2008-11-04T21:07:06Z")
I love old Selectrics, but I never became a good enough typist to use one. They were Ferraris or thoroughbred horses and they hummed in anticipation of a Mavis Beacon’s delicate, accurate, but speedy touch spurring them to type like the wind. I, on the other hand, would constantly type double or even triple characters at the speed of a fart. My wife’s uncle could do 80 WPM on a MANUAL Royal. It was a sight to behold. ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/27 "2008-11-04T21:30:24Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Luxury. We used to dream about getting a floppy drive for our TRS-80. When we got a cassette tape drive, we thought we were rich. But if you try to tell that to the young people of today, they won’t believe you… You lucky bugger! We made do with and old audio cassette recorder and had to keep adjusting the volume to try to get the computer to pick up the signal. Also our dot matrix printer only had about 6 lines of resolution on the pins, so it couldn’t do lower case letters. It would squish a ‘g’ onto the main line in a bizarre way. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/28 "2008-11-04T21:40:21Z")
Selectrics? Nope. Daily wheels? Nope. Those were fancy compared to what I used. It was an electric Smith-Corona that had changeable type keys. I literally had to remove some keys to insert the math symbols I needed to type. Type them, then had to put back the original keys. Try typing a page of integrals that way! ---
**Author:** ![GillianBoardman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc79bd/32.png) [@GillianBoardman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GillianBoardman)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/29 "2008-11-04T21:54:47Z")
[quote=“Cub\_Mistress, post:22, topic:470958”] Does anyone else remember Christmas wreaths made out of old punch cards??? I do, my mom was a keypunch operator. Fold the top in, staple, arrange in concentric circles, staple and spray with gold paint. Glitter optional. We used to use them for writing shopping lists as well…in fact, notes of any kind. And at my elementary school, the absentee cards were punch cards. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/30 "2008-11-04T22:55:32Z")
Punch cards, correcting ribbons, type balls, you guys don’t know nuttin. I (and my mother) typed my PhD thesis on a rented manual typewriter. Italics was unknown (you backspaced and underlines). Some greek letters could be fabricated: e.g. type an o (or O for a capital), backspace and type a / and voila, you have a phi. Instead of the / do a - and you have a theta. Everything else was put in by hand. Fortunately you could roll the platen a half line and get a superscript or subscript. Come to the end of a line and you threw the carriage return. Oh and this was done with five carbons. Make a mistake and you rolled the platen up and inserted pieces of paper behind all the carbons and erase them one by one. Remove papers and retype. You tended to go to extremes to avoid errors. Then I got a job and had typists to do this. What they had were old electrics and things called typits. It was a character on a stalk. You put it in front of the ribbon and hit a key (any key) and the key hit the typit and the character on it was printed. A good typist cold do it quite quickly, assuming her typits were well organized or she was using only a few of them. (Incidentally, all the typists were woman. A man once applied for a typing job and our female administrator refused to hire him because she was afraid it would change the tone of the office.) By that time, photocopying had become cheap enough that there were no carbons. Then I got a computer and learned TeX and have never looked back. I type all my own papers and it is much easier that way. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958/31 "2008-11-04T23:41:45Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > In addition to changing fonts, it wasn’t uncommon to use a black and red ribbon, so you could change colors too. There were also other colors available, but less common. I once typed a history paper with the questions in red and the answers in black. I thought it was so cool. It looked like a bible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-they-switch-fonts-on-a-typewriter/470958.md?page=1)