Perfect, Or Good Enough?

Post-Script: I still haven't found a great way to photograph these long strips of writings with a camera without uneven lighting, or field curvature from the lens. The iOS panorama mode comes closest, but you have to move the camera along the strip of paper with absolute precision in terms of the camera's viewing angle and speed of motion. Perhaps a slider would work. Maybe I'll rig one together.

I was inspired late last night to write this, as I was waiting for my video to upload to YouTube. These thermal machines are great for late-night missives where you want absolute quiet in the house. And it's nice to see the results measured in terms of feet and inches, rather than pages. It feels like progress. In the case of this piece (literally a piece, torn off from a roll of thermal fax paper, after it was completed), it measured nearly 21 inches in length.

Typing With My Mother

Post-Script: Here's a photo of my Dad, sitting on a camel, taken during WWII in Egypt. He's on the right. On the left is his hometown buddy Dino Limore.


Typecast via Olympia SG-3.

Maquina de Escribir Gigante

Post-Script: The SG-3 is not supposed to be "portable," so when you do carry it, do so with the carriage close to your torso, since that's the heaviest part. Alternately, you could remove the carriage and move the machine in two halves, but that gets a bit fiddly.

This phenomenon I spoke of in this piece is very real, and immediately noticeable, with these large machines. You (at least, I) really do notice it as soon as you begin typing, how your concentration is focused on the work at hand. It helps that the machine is such a great typer, the action is smooth and, at least on this particular example, the type alignment is darned near perfect.

Which get us to the wonky photos of the typed piece, done using the panorama mode on my iPhone, handheld. It looks like the lines aren't straight, but in fact they are. To do this better, you may need some kind of slider to hold the phone absolutely at the proper angle to the work, and move it with mechanical precision.

The irony of last night's typing session with Kevin is that he was documenting, with his Underwood 6, our mutual collections of ultra-portable machines.

I have another video and blog article to do this week, about my recently acquired Brother EP-43 thermal typewriter. Yes, this makes three such machines. Are they in fact "ultra-portable" typewriters too? Yes, for certain. But that's the subject for another day.

I'm starting to gravitate to the conclusion (at least for now, as I hold the right to change my mind at any time) that a combination of thermal typewriter for out-and-about typing, and a full-sized standard for fixed office/studio writing, is a great mix. What do you think?

Here's a night shot of Kevin at his Underwood.