WYSIWYG with old daisy wheel printers

A 1985 IBM Wheelwriter 5 with the printer option. Click here for high-resolution version

I apologize to regular readers for this nerd post of limited interest. Many of the hits on this blog come from Google, from people who have run a search on one of the many subjects I’ve written about over the past 17 years. This post is meant as a service to “the typewriter community,” since I am a typewriter collector and my career was in computers and publishing.

Today I am shocked, and ashamed, at how quickly we nerds gave up our typewriters back in the 1980s and quickly adopted the new phenomenon of “word processing.” Now I’m sentimental about what we had back then. We need not only to keep the old machines alive, but also to preserve the knowledge of how to use the old machines.

A few typewriters were made that bridged the world between typewriters and computers. They had a keyboard, of course, and could be used as typewriters. But they also had a computer interface (generally a Centronics parallel port) so that they could be connected to a computer and used as a printer. Most IBM Wheelwriters did not have the printer interface. They are said to be rare. But if you can get your hands on one, they are marvelous machines. Mine is a Wheelwriter 5 made in 1985. The “printer option” for the Wheelwriter 5 consisted of two computer boards that connected to the typewriter’s main board with a ribbon cable. To house the two extra boards, an extension for the case was provided that clipped onto the back of the typewriter. Other versions of the printer option on later models of the Wheelwriter had the printer option more or less built in. Some even came with LCD displays or hardware for connecting the typewriter to an external keyboard and monitor.

The first thing to know about these beasts in that they are (rather obviously) ASCII printers. When Postscript and laser printers came along, ASCII printers including ASCII dot-matrix printers were quickly displaced. These days, printers have drivers that explain the printer’s capabilities to the computers they’re attached to. For ASCII printers, you won’t find any drivers, because: You don’t need a driver! The goal is a simple one — to send ASCII down the wire to the printer. But most computers these days have forgotten how to do that.

I am not a Microsoft Windows person. There are ways to make the old ASCII printers work with Windows, but I’m afraid I can’t help with Windows. However, the job is easy with Linux computers and Macintoshes, because Linux computers and Macintoshes are Unix boxes that still come with all the old text-handling utilities such as “vi,” “nroff,” and “lpr.” Other classic text-handling utilities, such as the Emacs editor, are easily available.

To get an old ASCII printer to work on a Linux computer or Macintosh, you need some basic knowledge that I can’t get into here. You’ll need to do some Googling and learning if the tools and concepts are new to you. For example, to attach an ASCII printer to a Linux computer or Macintosh, you’ll need a USB to Centronics parallel adapter cable. You’ll use Cups, the built-in print spooler, to set up the printer as a “raw” printer. “Raw” means that Cups sends plain ASCII down the wire without using a driver. You need to know your way around in terminal windows.

I’m an old hand at “vi” and “nroff,” because once upon a time that’s what we used for writing, editing, and formatting text. Another popular editor was Emacs. Emacs has a learning curve even steeper than that of “vi.” But to use Emacs with a daisywheel printer, you don’t have to know everything about Emacs. You only need to know enough to use Emacs for writing and editing English text.

Some of the early text utilities with graphical interfaces are still around and no doubt can still provide a WYSIWIG experience with a daisywheel printer. (WYSIWIG means “what you see is what you get.”) For example, George R.R. Martin is notorious for continuing to use WordStar on DOS! But you’ll have a harder time finding WordStar, or a working DOS computer, than you’ll have finding an IBM Wheelwriter with the printer option. So Emacs is the easiest way to go.

I’m sorry that I can’t get into the how-to’s here. It’s all pretty complicated, and Googling will lead you to articles on how to use Emacs, how to use Cups, etc. My purpose is only to show that it can be done and to encourage you to do it if you have a daisywheel printer, an ASCII dot-matrix printer, or a hybrid typewriter-printer such as a Wheelwriter in your collection.

About the IBM Wheelwriters

Typewriter collectors disdain machines such as the IBM Wheelwriters because Wheelwriters are not purely mechanical machines. Rather, there is a computer inside the typewriter that controls the typewriter’s moving parts. So-called electronic typewriters are far simpler — mechanically, anyway — than mechanical typewriters. Just as the IBM Selectric was the ultimate in mechanical typewriters, the IBM Wheelwriter is the ultimate in electronic typewriters. The Wheelwriters are heavy beasts, made for commercial use. The Wheelwriter keyboards are superb. The keyboards are identical to the IBM Model M keyboards, which IBM made for IBM computers starting in 1985. People cherish these keyboards today and pay high prices for them. If you are a good typist, then the best keyboards ever made are the keyboards on the IBM Selectric typewriters, the Model M keyboards for IBM computers, and the keyboards on the Wheelwriter typewriters. Like most of the Selectric typewriters, the Wheelwriters have a correcting function — a sticky tape that lifts letters off the paper if you made a mistake. The Wheelwriters (depending on the model) also have memories (for such things as form letters) and spell check. The daisy wheel itself lifts out, and an assortment of type styles and font sizes were available, as well as support for dozens of languages.

I love my IBM Selectrics, but the Wheelwriters also are lovable machines. They have a kind of robot personality, because, unlike typewriters, they have a brain inside.

⬆︎ This is Emacs running in a terminal window in Mac OS.

⬆︎ A letter from John Steinbeck to Robert Wallsten reproduced on a Wheelwriter using a proportional typeface. Wallsten was a screenwriter for “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”