1 - Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,408
Elitist Woes
For today's typing assignments I decided to pull a 1963 Smith-Corona Model 72 (Secretarial) off the shelf. I hadn't used the typewriter in a while, and although it's a rather dirty and sad-looking thing, it has a nice type action and there’s still a lot of life left in the half-century-old machine.
My re-discovered enthusiasm for the standard was short lived. Half-way through the first paragraph I was forced to stop because of its poor type quality, an indication that the slugs were in desperate need of a cleaning.
Cleaning slugs can be a laborious and time consuming task, but it does provide plenty of time for thinking, and today I thought about type sizes as I pulled out my quick-clean kit, which is nothing more than a wooden toothpick, a few cotton swabs, and a piece of paper towel.
There are two predominant sizes when it comes to typewriter typefaces, pica and elite, and the European variants of those sizes. Each size has its share of pros and cons, and most typewriter enthusiasts, when asked, will share a preference for one over the other, but I can unequivocally state that it’s not easy being an elitist.
The Secretarial I was using has an elite typeface, and although I really like the way a page of elite type looks, and that elite allows more words to the page, it’s definitely a higher maintenance choice. The smaller elite letters are more easily (and quickly) packed with ink, and they are a bigger challenge to clean, and whenever I send an older friend a letter typed using elite, it usually results in my getting an earful about how difficult it is to read.
When considering those complaints I had to question if I really was an elitist. Pica is definitely an easier size to work with because its slugs don’t need to be cleaned as often, the type is more conducive to editing, and my OCR software does a better job recognizing its larger letters, but despite all of this I still find there’s something unattractive about the size.
Strange woes to be sure, ones not found outside of enthusiast circles, but they do lead me to wonder, are you an elitist too?
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- pdxtypewriter
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- Posts: 139
Re: Elitist Woes
I prefer pica, it just feels more like a typewriter to me. But that's probably because my childhood Classic 12 was pica. I like them both, actually. But if I were laying out big bucks, say, for a perfectly re-conditioned beautifully restored machine--I'd want pica.
- pdxtypewriter
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Re: Elitist Woes
BTW, I just love big standard machines. I only have two because of space, but I love them That Secretarial must be wonderful.
- Fleetwing
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- From: Hartford, CT USA
- Registered: 30-6-2015
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Re: Elitist Woes
I'm drawn to elite also, though folks have told me they are better able to read my letters if they're on a pica machine.
- CoronaJoe
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Re: Elitist Woes
I chalk up my preference for elite to imprinting. It's what the typewriter had I trained on. Aside from that, when I was perusing the Ames training manual for repair I discovered at Richard Polt's website; near the end it displays some of the different manufacturer's typefaces in the elite and pica. Elite and pica are two categories with subsets in each. Elite has 6 versions, I never knew that. Just elite runs, elite 12 cpi D.C., elite small 12 cpi D.C., elite 10 cpi D.C., elite standard D.C., elite gothic D.C. and elite gothic S.C. I haven't figured what the D.C. or S.C. abbreviations mean yet.
- beak
- Key Master
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Re: Elitist Woes
Never had to do more cleaning with 12 cpi than 10cpi. So - no - nothing neither way for me.
Other than proper cleaning with all the kit (toothpicks / solvents / etc) I have an 'on the run' cleaning method for use when necessary during a typing session; Blu-Tack.
I found an old tin of "typing Cleaner' in a junk market - it was simply a sausage of putty. Blu-Tack seems to be the same thing, more or less - but without any drying oils, of course. I cannot say that it is completely harmless to the slugs (because its ingredients are not fully listed by the maker) but I strongly doubt that it is.
I can clean the slugs in about 30 seconds; roll into sausage. apply to slugs, pull it off. Really quick and simple, and though not a really thorough cleaning, it will clean well enough to continue with the work.
Sincerely,
beak.
- colrehogan
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- From: Granite City, IL
- Registered: 05-2-2015
- Posts: 609
Re: Elitist Woes
I have an 11 cpi elite on my Olympia 9.
Smith Premier typewriters are cool!
- KatLondon
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Elitist Woes
I admit I like pica. But many of my favourite machines are elite.And I go through cycles, anyway - sometimes I prefer it.
- M. Höhne
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- Registered: 14-3-2013
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Re: Elitist Woes
CoronaJoe wrote:
I chalk up my preference for elite to imprinting. It's what the typewriter had I trained on. Aside from that, when I was perusing the Ames training manual for repair I discovered at Richard Polt's website; near the end it displays some of the different manufacturer's typefaces in the elite and pica. Elite and pica are two categories with subsets in each. Elite has 6 versions, I never knew that. Just elite runs, elite 12 cpi D.C., elite small 12 cpi D.C., elite 10 cpi D.C., elite standard D.C., elite gothic D.C. and elite gothic S.C. I haven't figured what the D.C. or S.C. abbreviations mean yet.
You still don't know that, because that is not what that means. Those are names given by a particular manufacturer to their particular designs; they are not designations for a type size variation. "Pica" and "elite" in the typewriter world refer only to pitch, the distance from one character to the next, in this case 1/10 and 1/12 inches, aka 10 characters per inch and 12 cpi respectively. That is all that those two words mean.
When you see those words (They are not names.) in typeface names it is because the maker wants to associate something familiar with the design. It is just like you can buy a Mega Ice Cream Cone or a Turbo TV Remote or a Quantum automobile. The buzzwords are unrelated to their original and useful meanings. "Elite 10 cpi" is basically something a tricky marketing guy thought up. D.C. and S.C. might well mean Double Caps and Small Caps, meaning no lower case characters in the typeface.
Elite and pica and their 10 and 12 also have nothing at all to do with the height of the characters.10 cpi is unrelated to our familiar "10 point type". 12 cpi (elite) indicates only the spacing across the page. In actual practice the characters on an elite typewriter are usually of smaller height than the usual characters on a pica typewriter but that is not necessarily so; it is simply that when the characters are closer together, they look better if they are also smaller. Type foundries take that into account. If you measure carefully, you will find small variations in character heights among the different elite and pica designs.
In mechanical typewriters, the pitch is determined by the spacing of the holes in the carriage track where the escapement latches for each character. Electronic typewriters have no such limitation, so you can mount an elite daisywheel and set the spacing at 10 cpi and the type will appear spread out; do it vice versa and the "pica" daisywheel will give you crowded printing. For real thrills, mount a pica typewheel and set the machine to "micro", which is 15 cpi!
Some day this will all be in a wiki and I'll never have to write it again.
- M. Höhne
- Key Master
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- From: Maine
- Registered: 14-3-2013
- Posts: 623
Re: Elitist Woes
Pica is often preferred for aesthetic reasons alone, for its look on the page, but persons with problematic eyesight prefer it for readability and in the old days students preferred pica because they could fill up a 10-page essay with 17% less effort.
