Saturday, October 10, 2015

An urgent letter

Who's with me? Let's help some Silicon Valley bureaucrats have a more interesting day.



Any letters or postcards you choose to share with me will be posted below.

Thanks to Peter E. for his swift typewritten action!


Zoltán C. contributes a petition in Serbian:


PS: For the sad end to the typewriter emoji saga, read this post.

10 comments:

  1. Certainly a typewriter would be far more useful than the "Lion Face".

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    Replies
    1. And that is a set of smiling and laughing faces, in case it doesn't show up for anyone.

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  2. a few possibilities :)
    (!!!)
    [!!!]
    _///
    =||
    ||=
    |=
    (!!)
    [!!]
    |!!|

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  3. You may have already researched this, but it turns out that it's possible to submit a specific application for an emoji character to be added to the standard. The generic instructions are here: and the parts that apply only to emoji are here: It looks as though the right way to move things forward would be to submit a formal proposal, probably after working through the emoji selection guidelines and at least preparing an argument why the typewriter would meet them. On my first read, I think it looks like we'd have a fairly strong case.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, but it looks like your links disappeared.

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    2. Oops. Let's try this: http://unicode.org/pending/proposals.html and http://www.unicode.org/emoji/selection.html perhaps?

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    3. Looking at their guidelines (here: http://www.unicode.org/emoji/selection.html) I believe that we have a fighting chance. Google Trends reports that in general people search for 'floppy disk' ⅓ as much as 'typewriter'. Just look at this comparison: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=typewriter,floppy%20disk,rolodex

      I hereby put forth the candidacy of the Underwood No.5 as the emoji face of typewriting. After all, post-Underwood most machines changed to the same general form factor and the No.5 is one of the most common machines out there.

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    4. I agree, the Underwood no. 5 would be a great choice as the proto-typical typewriter.

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