Digital Value-Added Website of Technological Artifacts, NSTM Collections (Home)

Using a typewriter to retrieve lead types for typesetting started in the 1960s. Because of the advantage of using a typewriter to compose English letters and mathematical symbols, its convenience in saving and re-editing files, and the trend of lithographic printing, the typewriter’s composition gradually replaced movable type composition after 1963, and the printing method also marched into the era of cold lithographic type from hot movable type.

The printing method changed in 1963 because of the development and spread of typewriter composition that featured fast and low-cost lithographic printing. Consequently, it gradually replaced movable type composition, bringing the printing method into the era of cold lithographic type from hot movable type. In 1966, the first Chinese typewriter in Taiwan, the "Hua-Xing" typewriter, was produced, with the decade from 1977 to 1987 being its heyday. In 1981, Rijing Company introduced automatic electronic Chinese typewriters, which were improved in quality without the problems of early Chinese typewriters (not as good as movable type composition, for example). Phototypesetting was used for book titles; the types were imported from Japan and their size could be adjusted according to users' requirements. Although Chinese typewriter composition was cheap, troublesome correction was still its disadvantage. As a result, it was eventually replaced by the computer typesetting that featured storage and memorization functions.

L:88.00 cm X W:63.00 cm X H:62.00 cm

Movable type printing

1986