Typewriters and Typecasting from Winterthur, Switzerland

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Olivetti Graphika – Pictures

Olivetti Graphika - Pictures

As promised in my last post, here are
some pictures of my Olivetti Graphika.
As you can see it is in a pretty good
condition with only some minor optical
flaws. The colour is the same pistachio
green as any other Graephika (unless they
are repainted).

Besides these pictures, there is also
another story involving an Olivetti to type
about. I, once again, couldn't resist to
make another addition to my collection
and I went for another Olivetti, namely
a Lettera 32.

I got interested in this specific model
when I read Richard Polt's recommendations
in "The typewriter revolution" and also the
"Top 10 Writerly Typewriters" on
typewriterreview.com

Both rated the Olivetti Lettera 32
among the best choices for portable type-
writers. As I already own a Hermes 3000
which is the third best choice according
to "Typewriter Review", the Lettera 32
which ranks second was the logical next
step. Now I only need to find an Olympia
SM9 to get to typewriter heaven.

More with and about the Lettera in
a next post.

Typed on my Olympia Graphika

Winterthur, 28. June 2019

28 June 2019 by Stève 2 Comments

The Olivetti Graphika

The Olivetti Graphika

As the summer, which already had
a difficult start here in Switzerland
this year, decided to take another
break, I finally found some time for
the long promised post on my new
Olivetti Graphika.

As I wrote earlier, I had to travel
to the other side of Switzerland to
get this machine, but it was totally
worth the effort. As you can see it
is perfectly working and even features
a fully functional royal blue ribbon,
which in my opinion is a perfect fit
for this classy typewriter.

I've got it directly from its first owner
and it included the original dust cover
and even the instruction manual (in
italian), which is really helpful as it
lists the spacing of all letters to make
corrections much easier.

Typing on this machine is quite pleasant
but requires significantly more force
compared to my Hermes Ambassador or
Hermes 3000 (and of course also than
the IBM Selectric, which is a whole
different story). But the result compensates
for all the work you have to put into it.

The typeface, referred to as "Olivetti N.82"
in the manual was designed by Imre Reiner
who was living in Lugano, just a few
kilometers away from where I've got the
typewriter, at the time when he designed
this font for Olivetti. Even if I slightly
prefer the other typeface which was
available for the Graphika, the "Olivetti
N.81" by A. M. Cassandre, this fact
makes it a perfect fit for my machine.

Winterthur, 22, June 2019

22 June 2019 by Stève 2 Comments

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