Welcome to our Typewriter Font Generator! Our tool helps you create that old typewriter text to copy and paste anywhere text is accepted, from Instagram to Facebook and Twitter, or even Google Docs. The second tool (called Save as Image) will allow you to save, email, or even print and take to a tatoo artist!

How to Use The Typewriter Font Generator

1. If you’d like to copy-and-paste the text directly, use the tool at the top of the page.
   1. Enter your text into the box on the left. As you type in your text, the second box will automatically transform the text into a typewriter font.
   2. Click the copy button, or manually copy the text. You can then paste this text into any social media app, like Instagram or Facebook, or into a separate text document or presentation.
2. If you’d like to save the font as an image, use our second tool.
   1. Enter your text into the rectangular box. 
   2. Choose your font. Our generator has four different typewriter fonts that you can use. Select which font you prefer by clicking on one of the four ‘ABC’ boxes, or select your font from our drop-down selection menu.
   3. Select the color for your font. Use our selection tool to choose the color of your font.
   4. Decide if you’d like a background color. If you would like a background color, click the ‘background on’ button. Then choose what color you’d like for your background using our selection tool.
   5. Set your font size. Use our slider to decide how large or small you’d like your text to be.
   6. Set your slope. Setting a slope value will rotate your text from side to side. Use the sliding tool to set the slope at the level you prefer.
   7. Set your slant. Setting a slant value will tilt your words to the left or right. Use the sliding tool to set the slant at the level you prefer.

History of the Typewriter

Typewriters were first invented over four hundred years ago, in 1575, when Italian printmaker Francesco Rampazetto created the scrittura tattile. The machine was very different from a modern typewriter — in fact, some people don’t consider it a typewriter at all. But it did serve the same purpose as a typewriter, putting letters, mechanically, on paper.

The first commercially-successful typewriter was created by Danish inventor Rasmus Malling-Hansen in 1870. The typewriter wasn’t well-liked by all: sometimes called the ‘writing ball,’ it was shaped like a brain that hovered over a bent piece of paper. Though the typewriter was bought by many, it was superseded by the Sholes & Glidden typewriter, which was created in 1873. This typewriter, created by a newspaperman, had much more of the now-standard form, and was quickly adopted by printers. Many typewriters in the coming years would mimic its style, including the Underwood typewriter, which was first created in 1895 and which is now found in many antiques shops.

Legacy of the Typewriter

The QWERTY keyboard

The most lasting legacy of the typewriter is probably the QWERTY keyboard. Ever wondered why the letters on your laptop keyboard are assigned in the seemingly-random manner they are? This keyboard, originally created in 1873 for the Sholes & Glidden typewriter, was likely designed to separate pairs of letters which were frequently used together. The inventor hoped that separating these letters would prevent typewriter bars from jamming if nearby letters were typed in quick succession. For instance, the letters ‘A’ and ‘N’ are far apart, and so are the letters ‘P’ and ‘R’; and ‘Q’ and ‘U’, all of which often occur together.

Terminology

Lots of commonly-used typing terms take their origins from the days of the typewriter — and make a lot more sense when you consider that context. For instance, the term ‘backspace’ was originally created to describe a keystroke that moved the typewriter ‘back’ one space, so you could overtype a character. In other words, the backspace was once the exact inverse of the ‘space’ button.

Likewise, ‘shift’ once described a key which would literally ‘shift’ the typewriter’s mechanism to type capitalized letters on the page. And ‘cut and paste’, which now requires no physical effort on our parts, once described the manual process of literally cutting out and gluing typewritten pieces of paper onto compound documents. These compound documents were called ‘copy’ — a term that is still used, not only when describing cut-and-pasting, but also in newspaper rooms across the country.

To see more of our font generation tools, check out our Friends Font Generator, our Harry Potter Font Generator, and our Signature Generator.