HACKER Q&A
📣 simonebrunozzi

Best way to physically "type" letters written with a computer?


I would like to use a word processor to prepare letters, and then "print" them physically in a way that resembles the typing of a typewriter.

I am not just talking about using a "courier" font and printing with a normal printer; I am talking about a physical result that is close enough to the actualy typing of a typewriter.

Is there any system that you know that can do this? Besides buying a typewriter and typing this by hand?

  👤 gryfft Accepted Answer ✓
This is a whole project to get into, but what you're looking to do is build a teletype.

https://www.instructables.com/From-Antique-Typewriter-to-a-F...

It can be done, and on the Unix end as long as it's hooked up as a tty you can just dump text into it, but you won't find any simple off-the-shelf modern hardware to do this.