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L.T. Hanlon

Month: February 2020

¡Try these helpful characters!

February 18, 2020 L.T. Hanlon9 Comments

¡SPANISH HAS THE RIGHT IDEA! Way back in elementary school, we had Spanish class a couple of times a week. Our teacher was a real character. If weather conditions had been slightly different and the Spanish Armada had made it through, you'd be speaking this language so listen up, she'd tell us. I recall just about nothing from those  few early classes. However, I've remained impressed with how Spanish telegraphs questions or exclamations with inverted characters. This is particularly helpful when you're reading aloud. And these additional typographical clues kind of mirror the facial expressions and body language most folks exhibit as they begin questioning or exclaiming. It's clear to me that the folks at Smith— Corona put a lot of thought into this particular issue. In the 1960s, some of the company's higher-end machines had a feature called CHANGEABLE TYPE. On these typewriter keyboards, one and sometimes two keys and typeslugs could be switched out and replaced with less-frequently used but extremely helpful characters. Math symbols, square brackets, even card suits for typing up results of bridge tournaments were available. CHANGEABLE TYPE units also accommodated the needs of other languages' accents and diacritical marks. My favorite is the inverted question/exclamation used in Spanish. I'm surprised that this convention never caught on in all languages. The concept is simple and logical. Just look at how well these famous quotes work with these typographical additions: ¡Oh, the humanity! and ¿You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? And ¡KHAN!  Smith—Corona’s attention to detail impresses me. I'm thinking of adopting these characters In my person writing. What do you think?

Here’s an interesting guide to Smith-Corona CHANGEABLE TYPE. And here’s some history of the inverted question and exclamation marks.

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