I just had an odd request from a customer that my google-fu is proving lacking on.
Older lady wants a “typewriter style” keyboard for a computer.
apparently there are several subtle differences that drive her nuts between old style electric typewriters and current keyboards. Does anyone make such a device where she might be able to order one?
Is it the functionality or the look and feel of the typewriter itself? There are several different types of reasons why some people prefer old school keyboards. It is tactile feedback and durability for some people and just some arcane reason for others that may or may not have any merit.
If the person in question won’t give a good reason, just build her one of these for a hefty fee and be done with it:
She likely wants one of the old IBM style keyboards. Unicomp sell 102/3 and 104/5 key models with modern USB connectors.
Note that this particular model uses Cherry key switches (which can be found in mass-produced keyboards that aren’t as expensive as that custom design), and the above mentioned Unicomp keyboards use traditional IBM buckling spring switches. Both have noticeably different feel from standard keyboard mechanisms and each other (with the Unicomp boards probably having the “heaviest”, but still very nice feeling keys), but neither feel exactly like an old-school electric typewriter (though if I’d had to choose the Unicomp would be closest).
You can get keyboards with either style switch for around 60 - 70 dollars.
The real question is, what exactly is she missing?
ETA: Actually, both of these keyboards use the Unicomp mechanism. I got confused with the ones on this site that do use Cherry keys.
1972?
Hah. Well, the Unicomp will get you back to about '84. 
My wife worked with a lady in her 70s who would tell anyone who would listen that she didn’t understand why she needed a computer when a typewriter did everything she needed to. This was in 2006.
Yeah yeah. My main question actually is; does she mean “typewriter style” as in this: separate roundish key tops with mechanical switches that you need to press at an inch or two down or something that’s a much more computer-like electro/mechanical setup and has square-ish compressed keys that only need a few millimeters of travel?
Cause if it’s the second I’d really recommend the bog standard (if a bit expensive compared to off-the-shelf) buckling spring Unicomp keyboards. They’re not the same but it’s as close as you’re going to get unless you’re really interested in hunting down some 25 year old IBM collectors items that have fairly idiosyncratic layouts or worse, need specialist adapters.
If it’s the first, there’s nothing to do but maybe get one hand made or converted from a typewriter at pretty high cost.
Check out the Matias Tactile Pro.
I kind of miss being able to put in a period whether I’m holding the capitalize key or not.
And sometimes I still find myself reaching for the return carriage.
Are we sure it is just the hardware issue here?
There is the software issue as well.
If you hold down a computer key, it repeats. Not so on a typewriter.
I believe an IBM Selectric key would repeat if held down.
Maybe she really really wants the apostrophe / single-quote character to be typed when she holds down the shift key and hits the 8 key, and really wants the quotation mark to appear when she holds down the shift key and hits the 2?
And making your exclamation marks by typing an apostrophe and a period in the same space?
And whapping a metal bar to start a new line when you get close to the right margin? Someone check her monitor and see if it has any Liquid Paper stains.
I really wanted to like that keyboard. It would be so nice to have a USB-based keyboard that I enjoyed typing on! But I’ve tried two of them (slightly different eras, the Tactile Pro original and more recently the Tactile Pro II) and I’ve found them to be strange devices at best. The original Pro was unusually noisy and yet the key texture wasn’t as pleasant as I was hoping for. The Pro II was downright buggy: came with TWO usb connectors to plug into the computer, one to power the keyboard and the other to power up what they describe as a built-in USB hub, but which was only a single USB slot on the keyboard, thus making the second cable nothing more than a sort of cable extender. Then, despite what appeared to be hi-performance braided USB cable, it was very prone to interference or something, as I’d be typing away and it would invent other characters or drop characters that I had typed unless I typed very slowly.
My current keyboard at all 3 of my primary locations (apartment, consultation studio, and office) is an original Apple “Saratoga” Extended Keyboard II, even though it requires an iMate USB-to-ADB adapter (and they don’t make those any more either). This is the best keyboard ever made. (Yeah, I like the texture and responsiveness better than the old buckling spring IBM keyboards).
Well, it probably did.
I’m replying about the lady who wanted a typewriter-style keyboard for her computer.
What she most likely meant that the keys on the standard computer keyboard are a little to the left of a typewriter keyboard. 55 years ago, when we learned to type, it was by touch system. In our class, the typewriter keys had no letters showing so we had to memorize the keyboard and teach our fingers to hit the proper keys. On my personal computer keyboard, I frequently hit the wrong key and have to backspace to make corrections. Only if I consciiously realign my fingers can I type without error. And this from a woman who at one time could type 120 wpm on a manual typewriter!
Thus the request for a typewriter-styled keyboard. It’s easier than re-teaching our fingers, especially at our age!
Heh, I also learned touch typing on a manual, but that was 56 years ago. Of all the HS classes I took, math, history, biology, chemistry, English, physics and the dreaded Latin, the most valuable to me throughout my life was a half year of typing.
Besides, I was the only boy in the class of lovely teenage girls.
I’m late on this thread. I usually search internet at least once a year hoping someone has made a commercial version of a typewriter keyboard for a computer. Over 20 years of touch typing on manual and electric typewriters has resulted in mucho muscle memory. It’s not the feel of the keys alone (although I loved the IBM Selectric feel). My biggest issue is the close spacing of the keys (a result of all of the extra stuff on computer keyboards). I consistently overreach on all computer keyboards that I’ve used, often hitting 2 keys at once. The angle of the keyboard is also a factor. I envision a basic keyboard replicating the IBM selectric (angle and all) with the necessary “new” functions such as “enter”, but all of the other keys squeezed in somewhere else (they could be on a flat “sidecar”).
Since the OP, this has appeared. No idea how it feels though.
Just ran across this and remembered this thread…
Pretty cool. But I really wonder what on earth the Margin Release button (to the left of the space bar) actually does.
