Before the widespread introduction of computer typing, they were typed using so-called letters. The methods of such printing have been improved by mankind for several centuries.
The word litera itself is Latin and is translated as a letter. But in Russian, it is customary for them to designate a device that allows you to print a letter, number or other sign on paper or other material.
Both Ivan Fedorov and Johann Gutenberg used separate metal letters for printing texts. They were laid in such a way that a mirror image was obtained first of one line, and then of the entire page. A very large number of identical pages can be printed from such a form - until the letters wear out. This is how almost all publications were printed until the middle of the twentieth century. Nowadays, this method finds application only when printing theater posters, and even then not always.
In the twentieth century, stringing machines are widely used. They are sometimes incorrectly called Linotypes, after one of the manufacturers, Linotype. Such a machine allows you to automatically receive whole lines of letters by casting from a special printing alloy. In this case, the speed is much higher than with manual dialing. Today, there are very few operating linotypes left, mainly in museums in Germany.
In a typewriter, the letters are located on separate levers. They take turns brought to the right places on the sheet of paper, and then hit it through the ink ribbon. In addition, there are cars with spherical character carriers, as well as plastic carriers of signs made in the form of chamomile.
Modern methods of computer typing have not been able to supplant the so-called self-typing stamps. In them, the letters are made of rubber, and in order to type those three or four lines that the stamp prints, you have to install them with tweezers. In other stamps - daters and numerators - the letters are located on a rubber band or cylinder and are brought to the place of printing by the user at will. And a number of numerators have built-in counters that automatically increase the printed number by one after each application.
While cash registers today mainly use thermal printing, printing calculators still use special drums. They also have letters. When the drum reaches the paper with the required mark, printing is performed.
