Typewriter Classifications

Sizes

Typewriters come in a few different sizes.

Standard

These are you "standard" desktop typewriters. Often big & heavy & hard to move.

Portable

These are usually about 1/2 to 1/3 the size of standard typewriters. They also come with cases for ease of portability. Not to be confused with standards with cases.

Ultraportable

The ultimate portable typewriters. Designed to be small and light and slim, often at the cost of any features (like a tabulator) and comfort.

Typebar Layout

Upstrike Typewriters

Upstrike typewriters are the first majorly successful typewriters manufactured, starting with the Sholes & Glidden AKA Remington Number 1. The typebars hang from the bottom of the machine and strike upwards towards the platen on the top. These machines often use 1 3/8" ribbon, and have right hand return levers. These are the oldest common found typewriters. These ceased manufacturing around 1905, with Remington ending the production of the Remington 7 & 8.

Front-strike/Visible Typewriters

These are the most common found typewriters found today. These were manufactured from around 1900 until today.

Down-stroke Typewriters

Downstroke typewriters type with the typebars above the platen, and the typebars swing down onto the platen. The most common example of this is the Oliver Typewriter.

Type Element/Type Shuttle Typewriters

These are typewriters that use a type element or type shuttle to print characters onto paper. Often the shuttles & elements are interchangeable, and you can change the pitch/size and typeface/style of the characters. Examples of this would be the Hammond Typewriter, Blickensderfer No. 6, and IBM Selectric.

Keyboard Types

Not to be confused with keyboard layouts, keyboard types refer to the arrangement of keys on the typewriter.

Dual Keyboard

Instead of shifting, these types of machines "shift" by having the entire keyboard integrated twice on the machine. One keyboard of capitals, and one of lowercase. Special characters are also scattered around the edges and in between the two primary keyboards. This type of keyboard is found on the American Caligraph and the Smith Premire Typewriters.

4 Bank Keyboard

A four bank keyboard is the most common type of typewriter keyboard. It is the most common kind of keyboard used today. Each key has two characters, one for lower case and one for shift. Characters are arranged on the bottom 3 rows, and numbers & special characters are all at the top and far right hand side of the keyboard.

3 Bank Keyboard

A three bank keyboard is very similar to a 4 bank keyboard, but it is missing the top row that is dedicated to characters only. Instead of locating extra symbols on the top and side, they are put on each letter key and are used utilizing the secondary shift. These typewriters often have a QWERTY layout for the letters, but symbol layouts vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

2 Bank Keyboard

This is only found on one type of German typewriter, the Helios-Climax. It has two rows of keys, and has three shifts. It is worth mentioning though, to bring light to a obscure and interesting machine.

Index Typewriter

Index typewriters have no keyboard, but rather a legend and a stylus. You move the stylus to whatever character you would like to print, and press the print key. These also have a space key, and sometimes a backspace key. This layout is found on the Mignon, and many other budget typewriters. It is also found on the Simplex and other toy typewriters.

Keyboard Layouts

Standard

This refers to and standard keyboard. This includes QWERTY, QWERTZ, and other keyboards that lack special characters.

Math

Math keyboards have symbols such as divided by, times, plus, equals, subscript numbers, pi, and other types of math-related symbols that are not found on a standard keyboard layout.

Pharmaceutical

These keyboards feature special characters for measuring small amounts of substances. These symbols are often out of date and no longer used, but are cool to see on a typewriter

Mill

A "Mill" refers to any typewriter designed and built for transcribing telegraph messages or for use in a telegraph office. These often have simplified keyboards so that the operator can type at high speeds. These typewriters often are missing shift keys, print only in capitals, and have a few special characters like that 0 with the cross through it and the degree sign.