Olivetti Lettera 31 - fairly good, not great, ok, not bad, pretty good

Olivetti Lettera 31 Typewriter, circa 1965

what's it like? It's ok. It does the job, quite nicely. The keys I find are a little close together. The noise it makes is average.
Actually, everything about it is average.
The Lettera 22 or 32 are much more fun machines.

I have a white one which makes it slightly more boring aesthetically, but if you can find a red one like this fellow's, I'm sure you'll be happy.
Pic respectfull stolen from flikr

Remington Starfire - Sperry Rand vs Olivetti Valentine

Now, just quickly, I wanted to point out this typewriter.
You won't find much about it on the internet, becuase it's pretty rare. I myself don't know much about it and I own one.

Yeah yeah, what's it like?
It's awesome! I mean this little baby is fast and fun to use.
OBVIOUSLY, it looks absolutely fantastic too!
Just look at those black and red keys!
Too cool.
If you can find one, buy it.
If you can buy it under a thousand dollars even better.

THIS IS MUCH MORE COLLECTIBLE THAN THE OLIVETTI VALENTINE!
The much coveted Valentine by Ettore Sottsass (who by the way disliked the typewriter very much and didn't even turn out the way he planned) is by no means a GOOD typewriter.
It's no fun to use and has nothing special about it all. Trust me, I have one.

Have a look at the two and tell me which do you prefer?
The Starfire, not only looks better but it's a hoot to use!

I'll be back on this topic with more history and pics of the Starfire....

No more need for computers. Typewriters are back and editable! Thanks to OCR

Now, no one like typing on a computer. Do they?
No, I doubt it, it's boring as batshit.
There's no love in the keys, there's no feedback, and it's just no fun.

NOW, the reason we don't use typewriters anymore seem pretty obvious don't they?
YOU CAN'T EDIT anything....
Well, those days are gone. Go to the cupboard or ebay and get out or buy the old typewriter.
You have enjoy typing once again!

THIS IS HOW IT GOES.

Type yourself silly, having the time of your life on your favourite old typewriter.
When you're done, take a photo of the page.
3. Send or download the picture to your computer.
4. Open OneNOte and drag the picture into it.
5. Right click the image and press COPY TEXT FROM IMAGE
6. You text is then ready to paste into Word or whatever you like, ready for editing.

This is how I do it.
I type
I photograph with mobile phone Nokia N95 8GB
Send pic by bluetooth to laptop: XPS M1330
Drag pic into OneNote
right click and paste into word.
DONE

AMAZING ISN'T IT?

OCR, by the by, means Optical Character Recognition
and people pay hundreds of dollars for it. If you have Microsoft Office already then you already have OCR
FOR FREE.

COMPUTER KEYBOARDS SUCK!

Olivetti Lettera 22

Well, this typewriter which was once awarded the best invention in a hundred years, is certainly the most pleasant to type on. The Olivetti Valentine, a most famous typewriter that sells for many hundreds of dollars is not nearly as nice to type on. People who buy that writer buy it only for the looks. IF they wanted something nice upon which to type you would go for larger metal machines.


Now admitadly the old Lettera 22 is not that pretty. But if you can buy one and have a type on it, it really is a joy to the fingers. I even lost sleep one night of the need to type on it. I lay awake all night waiting til it was an acceptable time to start taping away agian.
Having said that, I will say that it is also one of the quieter typewriters to use. The noise is just what a typewriter should be. It has the clickety clack but a quiality one. Not a cheap hollow clacking like some more modern machines.
When you type of this baby you'll be happy. I guarantee it!

Typewriters - Royal Litton

This here is the delightful little Royal Litton.
And it's mine, all mine!
When you've run the gamut of computers and want to make writing that visceral delicious experience again, a typewriter is the thing!

I haven't seen many of these at all. Nay, I haven't seen any except for the link below. If you find one buy it.
If you pay around 300 - 400 dollars you're doing ok.
It has to be red of course. Any other colour expect to pay less then 100.

Here's some rant about it:
http://bijoukaleidoscope.blogspot.com/2008/05/royal-litton-typewriter.html

And info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Typewriter_Company