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.
Labels: Brother EP-43, late night typing, Olympia SG-3, thermal paper, thermal typewriters, typewriter repair
posted by Joe V at 3:07 PM
4 Comments:
Very good points about imperfection. I've never tried a thermal typewriter; it looks kind of fun!
I find there are no perfect writing instruments whether a typewriter(manuals need maintenance and ribbons and each has a quirk or short-coming), thermal printer (need power), fountain pen (need ink), or a pencil(eventually need lead or if wooden, need replaced) . Everything has a quirk of some kind. If I had a choice of only one typewriter it would be one of my big office machines only because they work and are much better than any of my portables. My Hermes Ambassador is one of the best designs I've seen, and one of the best typers, but it is gigantic. My old Underwoods do just as good and take up much less space.
Well stated sir. I enjoyed your comparisons. In the end, they are tools with a purpose as you so noted. They are for writing. For me, typing has that tactile feel that can only come from mechanical. For big jobs, a big tool is needed and for small jobs, the little tool is best. I have a NEO that I like for the same reasons you like the thermal units. The downside is that I can’t look at the text overall to review the page as a whole. I do however, like the tactile feel of the keys and that, somehow, helps me think.
Regarding scanning issues, I found a feature in iOS. The Notes app has a scanning feature. Open up the app and tap the “+” icon and select scan. Then hover over your document. The app will size it up and border and crop it for you. Once the app is happy, it will capture the image. It takes a bit of fiddling at first, but it does a nice job. The tricky part is getting the image to blogger, but it can be done.
It's interesting to think about what would make the cut if the "team" was smaller. I'm currently facing this challenge as I look to reduce my record collection. I've just now reached the space issue with my typewriter collection. So I have the luxury of thinking in hypotheticals right now. But it won't be long before another typewriter catches my eye and I'm forced to cut one from the team.
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