▲ 1 points

Ask HN: Best way to physically "type" letters written with a computer?

by simonebrunozzi·6mo ago·3 comments·view on hn ↗

I would like to use a word processor to prepare letters, and then "print" them physically in a way that resembles the typing of a typewriter.

I am not just talking about using a "courier" font and printing with a normal printer; I am talking about a physical result that is close enough to the actualy typing of a typewriter.

Is there any system that you know that can do this? Besides buying a typewriter and typing this by hand?

3 comments

IIRC, during the last century, the parents of one of my friends had a typewriter with memory. (Olivetti???) You can somehow type and see the text in a tiny screen and edit it and then print a few copies, perhaps save it for later. I think it has mechanical letters like a normal typewriter. It obviously had no USB or Bluetooth :)

I made a quick search in Google https://www.google.com/search?q=typewiter+with+memory&oq=typ... and Gemini gave me an interesting reply, with a few links, in particular https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD-5jj4IxO8 in case the algorithm decides to not talk to you.

This is a whole project to get into, but what you're looking to do is build a teletype.

https://www.instructables.com/From-Antique-Typewriter-to-a-F...

It can be done, and on the Unix end as long as it's hooked up as a tty you can just dump text into it, but you won't find any simple off-the-shelf modern hardware to do this.

Thanks!