Typewriter Talk / Portable electr(on)ic typewriter

**Posted by iMe** 12-2-2014 11:25:03

Hi everybody.

I am searching for an electronic (I know. It's not very trendy, but that's the way it is) typewriter. One of my only need is that I don't want the screen and error-correcting screen that are on a lot of them.
Since I also have some difficulties with big office furnitures, I am also searching for a bit (just a bit) of aesthetism (sometihng which is not the big white furniture, bigger than the coin coffee machine, if you see what I mean).

So, I have rather found a relevant model, the olivetti praxis 20 (in black). But I have a question for the olivetti specialists : where I am, the 20 is quite difficult to find. But I find a lot easier the Olivetti Praxis 35.
What are the differences ?
(For example, I would have also been interested in the Olivetti Compact electronic typewriters, but they have a screen. So no).

Thanks for your advices !

**Posted by iMe** 20-2-2014 10:11:07

To the moderator : I have had a second though, and since the topic is encountering a big success, if you have the possibilty (and the will), you may delete it :-)
Thanks !

Last edited by iMe (20-2-2014 10:11:24)

**Posted by Uwe** 20-2-2014 10:30:00

With some threads you have to be patient. There's nothing wrong with having an interest in electronic typewriters, but I think most here are interested in manual and electric machines, so sometimes it takes a while before you get an answer. Another reason not to delete the post is that it will appear in internet search engines, so if someone else does a search for the machines you're asking about, they will find their way here and hopefully will able to answer the question. And finally, you may have lost interest in the post, but it's here as reference for other who might have the same question; believe it or not, it happens fairly often.

**Posted by iMe** 20-2-2014 11:07:26

Thanks for your reply

I have not given up on hope to have the informations (and not, it's not wrong, still, I have to wear a hood :-) ), but it's that I have broaden my potential interest to other models, since those one are too much difficult to find - and when found, in questionable shape...

**Posted by Uwe** 20-2-2014 17:22:20

No hood needed here; you are among friends, even if you like electronic typewriters!

However, as you mentioned, broadening your view is a good idea as there were so many interesting and good quality typewriters made over the years.

**Posted by skywatcher** 24-2-2014 08:41:51

Hi iMe

Just reading your post on electronic typewriters, I feel that anything up to but not including a dot matrix printer is a typewriter. If you have to change a type element (be that a ball or a wheel) to get a different font, it's a typewriter. I have an Olivetti ET-personal-55 wheel-writer (search Google for images) that I never use. Picked it up at a yard sale for next to nothing so if it can find a new home for the cost of shipping, all the better. PM me if this interests you. All the best,

Sky

**Posted by iMe** 25-2-2014 12:36:12

skywatcher wrote:
Hi iMe

Just reading your post on electronic typewriters, I feel that anything up to but not including a dot matrix printer is a typewriter. If you have to change a type element (be that a ball or a wheel) to get a different font, it's a typewriter. I have an Olivetti ET-personal-55 wheel-writer (search Google for images) that I never use. Picked it up at a yard sale for next to nothing so if it can find a new home for the cost of shipping, all the better. PM me if this interests you. All the best,

Sky

Sky, thank you for your reply and your really kind offer.
Unfortunately, being in Europe, I am afraid that the shipping costs will be more expansive than getting any typewriter on my local eBay... :-)
But thanks anyway.

The fact that I want to buy an eletr(on)ic typewriter is basically not for design sake or because I am a big fan of administrative designs of the second half of the XXth century (even if I have not against the people loving them :-), don't misunderstand what I am saying) : it's for using it.
So, I am wondering, since I have "broadened" my potential choices, if any of the experts and amators of typewriters being on this forum know a (relatively) silent (or discreet) elect(ro)nic typewriter ?
Thanks once again :-)

**Posted by RWWGreene** 25-2-2014 12:54:32

I used to have one of these, and I remember it being pretty decent.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-CASIO-CW11-BATTERY-MAINS-TYPEWRITER-IN-ORIGINAL-CASE-INSTRUCTIONS-/161228412616?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PensPencils_WritingEquipment_SM&hash=item2589f656c8

Last edited by RWWGreene (25-2-2014 12:58:43)

**Posted by phxxer** 25-2-2014 13:42:14

I, too, have recently become interested in electronic typewriters. But I want a display so I can see what I have written before it is printed, so the bigger the display the better. Two weeks ago I bought a Brother Word Processor from www.shopgoodwill.com for $3 plus shipping, and having lots of fun trying to figure it out. Then it is interesting to see it print out my document, the daisy wheel going left to right, then right to left. I have to resist the temptation to buy more daisy wheels with different fonts. I'd love to find an inexpensive italic daisy wheel.

Unfortunately, they are rather large, because the daisy wheel can't print in the first and last 2 inches of the platen, so 4 inches of width is lost. But, being mostly plastic, and not a lot of real hardware, they are very light, so easy to move and setup.

**Posted by iMe** 25-2-2014 13:51:29

One of the biggest issue, actually, when you seen the number of those, is the (future, at least for a couple of years to come) availiability of ribbons/cartridges...
I have seen a couple of daisy wheels (the one with the letters, if I understand well :-) ), which are usually sold in boxes (and branded as "new") and they are terribly expensive (I saw that for a 10/20 euros typewriter, a supplementary daisywheel is sold between 40 and 75 euros (my best guess : 55/90 US dollars).