Tag: FFF

Typewriter 101 on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

If you’re working at getting the little ones started into typewriters (or just starting out yourself), Mr. Rogers covers some of the basics in episode 1083 of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood from February 25, 1970. 

You can see Mister Rogers demonstrate the use of what appears to be a Royal Futura 800 in the full episode here: https://misterrogers.org/episodes/typewriters/

“I was very much interested in letters.”
—Fred Rogers

While he used a Futura in the show, his personal typewriters included a 1930’s Royal portable (possibly a Model O?) and a Royal KMG, which can be visited at the Fred Rogers Institute by joining the 143 Club.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Amber Guetebier (@aguetebier)

And if you’re a serious fan, you’ll potentially have a Royal KMG and Futura of your own.

A gray Royal KMG standard next to a blue Royal Futura 800 on a wooden table. In the background is a wooden library card catalog with a 1930s black enamel typewriter and various decorations.
My mini facsimile Fred Rogers typewriter collection.

Custom Zettelkasten Stationery?

For those who have a significant paper-based zettelkasten practice, have you considered commissioning custom made cards? There are a variety of stationers who do custom work and one could also purchase directly from Chinese manufacturers to get costs down by buying in bulk.

Ryan Holliday is one of the few I’ve seen in the wild who has mentioned custom making cards, usually done on a per-project (book) basis where he’ll put a header title at the top of his note cards. Example: https://www.instagram.com/p/CeWV6xBuZUN/?hl=en

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Ryan Holiday (@ryanholiday)

Other options could include doing custom/personalized stamps. (I have a date stamp handy for quickly stamping the dates of creation/updating in the corner of cards.)

I’m curious what suppliers/manufacturers folks have researched/used? What were your experiences? What sort of templates or printing did you use on them? Paper weight? Did you go Grid, blank, dot, lined, or all of the above? If you were looking to purchase something for yourself, what would you want?