Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

Ribbon vibrator. Platen roller. Type bar. Paper finger. Guide pointer.

Know what I’m talking about?

Smith-Corona. Remington. Underwood. Royal.

With me now?

I’m talking about typewriters. Manual typewriters. Old-fashioned, heavy, noisy, mechanical machines driven by the power of your fingers. Yes, those lovely old clackety-clack behemoths that used to be ubiquitous but now only exist as props in crime novels and on the “collectible” sections of eBay.

If you’re old (like me), you either love them or hate them. Otherwise, you may never have even seen one of these miracles of low-tech machinery, much less experienced the aching hands that come from a long session of literally “pounding the keyboard.”

I happen to love these old machines. As it turns out, so does Tom Hanks.

Yes, that Tom Hanks, the actor-guy, the guy who signs his twitter-feed “THanx.” And it turns out he’s more than just a collector. He’s an apostle. He loves the old machines but realizes that not all of us have the wherewithal to keep 200 of them around like he does. Toward that end, he’s created (or caused to have created) his own app: The Hanx Writer.

After reading a review in Time Magazine, I quickly went out to the iTunes app store and downloaded the free version. After trying it for a few hours, I was hooked.

The app comes with a basic typewriter, the “Hanx Prime Select,” that has the feel of an old Underwood (to my ear, though it’s been a few decades since I sat in front of one). Other models–the Hanx 707 and the Hanx Golden Touch–can be acquired through in-app purchases, and can be bundled with extra features, such as ribbon colors, multiple document management, and center- and right-alignment of typed text.

Essentially, the app is an emulator, giving you as much of the experience of working with one of these old machines as is possible in our computerized world. The interface is simple, clean, and fairly intuitive, displaying a minimum of clutter and icons. It provides visuals and sounds–the rolling of the platen, the tap-tap of the keys, the clunk of the space bar, the ding-shook of the returning carriage–that ping all my old memories of learning to touch-type in summer school. Just about the only this app doesn’t do is shake the table while you type. You can use it with the virtual keyboard displayed on your tablet, but I think it works best with a Bluetooth keyboard.

Each of the additional “models” has a different look, font, and sound-effect set. I’m hoping that they come out with a “Selectric” style, that hums and uses a rotating font-ball instead of the old flying type bars.

Hanks believes that this old, simpler, noisier interface actually increases enjoyment of the writing process. I don’t know if my impression was colored by his assertion, but I found it to be true. I used it for a couple emails and found that my usual one-page response quickly grew to three.

The Hanx Writer interfaces with Messages, Mail, and printers, saving the text in a PDF document that retains the typewritten appearance (see example, below). The only thing I think it needs is a way to export just the text into an email (instead of attaching the PDF), and it does need some minor work on management of the virtual keyboard when using a Bluetooth keyboard (it doesn’t stay hidden, but keeps popping up whenever you touch an icon or advance the page.) As a first release, though, it’s far better than many I’ve seen.

If you’ve never used an old manual typewriter, this might provide a momentary goofball moment. However, if you remember black-and-white television and rotary telephone dials, this might be your key to the Days of Yore.

k

Example of text produced by the Hanx Writer