Typewriter User's Manual - Hermes 3000 and Hermes Media 3 (circa 1964)

My Hermes 3000 typewriter came to me in pretty much factory new condition, not a speck of dust on it, no dents and absolutely everything working perfectly, and I got it for a song. People just don't seem to want typewriters anymore, and are happy to donate them to Goodwill or sell them at yard sales or Craigslist for a single piece of paper with the picture of a president. Most often, that picture doesn't have to be of Benjamin Franklin either. Usually a Grant, a Jackson, a Hamilton or a Lincoln is enough to get a seller to let you take home a beautiful, fully functioning typewriter. This is in some ways sad, but for people like me, it's fantastic. I love typewriters not just for the beauty and nostalgia, but because they are simply the best tool I've ever found for getting thoughts onto paper. A good manual typewriter infects you with ideas that you can instantly commit to paper without waiting for a bootup screen or searching for a power outlet. Hermes was the Greek messenger of the Gods, and for me, my Hermes is a muse.

Anyway, when googling around for other Hermes Typewriter pages the other day, I noticed that a lot of people seemed to have operational questions about the Hermes, particularly about how to set the margins and what the row of buttons at the top did. Mine happened to have come with the owner's manual, so I scanned it in relatively high resolution (200ppi, around 1500 pixels wide) and uploaded the scans here. Right-click and "Save As" to download the images for printing. They're kind of scrunched but still readable at 800 pixels wide on this page.