Lovely! Now I know my typewriter writes in Modern Pica No. 67. I still like to use the typewriter for everything, though now it’s more difficult to find ribbons in stationery stores.
Thanks so much for posting this comprehensive list of Olympia fonts as they’ve been ultra-handy in ID’ing the fonts on my Olympias. One of my Olympias is an extended carriage, tail-end version of the SM-9 (Serial # 4820827), which I think was made in 1975-76 timeframe. In trying to nail down the font, it’s definitely 10 cpi, but the letters look like Pica No. 12, while the numbers (especially the “1”) look like Pica Double Gothic example above. Is this possible? I’d be happy to send you a scan if helpful. Not a big deal, but I’m just curious as to whether Olympia mixed/matched various font styles on the same typewriter or if this was perhaps a custom order (not sure this would’ve been possible). Thanks for any info/insight you can provide.
Typewriter manufacturers usually didn’t make their own typefaces, instead they sourced them from various type foundries that could vary from year to year. It could be that Olympia switched foundries between the late 50’s/early 60’s when this font guide was produced and the 70’s when your machine was made. Even “standard” Pica generally had wildly variant numeral cuts between any given “standard” interpretation of the font, even if the letterforms stayed the same. see this post: http://munk.org/typecast/2011/11/29/what-is-pica-anyway/
I seem to be about two years late to the party but… thank you! I believe I have identified my SG-1 font: senatorial 71. Machine is great, but I can’t decide if I like the typeface.
I have an Olympia SM9, 68/69 vintage. The mark on the face of the slug says “97 66.’ So far as I can tell, it’s a pica 10 because of the “97” but I don’t know what the “66” means or who made the slugs. Any wisdom?
I have a typewriter with exactly the same mark, only its a 1960 SM4. “97|66” on the face of the slugs. No. 97 is 10 pitch Pica and No. 66 is 12 pitch Modern Elite. My typewriter is 10 pitch. No idea why both numbers are present. I also get thrown by the “W”s because the middle on some is as nigh as the outsides and on others goes up some amount less but hard to tell at that scale. It really is detective work, figuring out what you have.
can you please send me a link so i can see all the signs of te font called:calssic pica no. 85?
and the signs of the font called: senatorial no. 71
Lovely! Now I know my typewriter writes in Modern Pica No. 67. I still like to use the typewriter for everything, though now it’s more difficult to find ribbons in stationery stores.
Thanks so much for posting this comprehensive list of Olympia fonts as they’ve been ultra-handy in ID’ing the fonts on my Olympias. One of my Olympias is an extended carriage, tail-end version of the SM-9 (Serial # 4820827), which I think was made in 1975-76 timeframe. In trying to nail down the font, it’s definitely 10 cpi, but the letters look like Pica No. 12, while the numbers (especially the “1”) look like Pica Double Gothic example above. Is this possible? I’d be happy to send you a scan if helpful. Not a big deal, but I’m just curious as to whether Olympia mixed/matched various font styles on the same typewriter or if this was perhaps a custom order (not sure this would’ve been possible). Thanks for any info/insight you can provide.
Typewriter manufacturers usually didn’t make their own typefaces, instead they sourced them from various type foundries that could vary from year to year. It could be that Olympia switched foundries between the late 50’s/early 60’s when this font guide was produced and the 70’s when your machine was made. Even “standard” Pica generally had wildly variant numeral cuts between any given “standard” interpretation of the font, even if the letterforms stayed the same. see this post:
http://munk.org/typecast/2011/11/29/what-is-pica-anyway/
I seem to be about two years late to the party but… thank you! I believe I have identified my SG-1 font: senatorial 71. Machine is great, but I can’t decide if I like the typeface.
I have an Olympia SM9, 68/69 vintage. The mark on the face of the slug says “97 66.’ So far as I can tell, it’s a pica 10 because of the “97” but I don’t know what the “66” means or who made the slugs. Any wisdom?
Are you sure it’s not S7/66? That’s what mine is, which makes it a Modern Elite typeface.
I have a typewriter with exactly the same mark, only its a 1960 SM4. “97|66” on the face of the slugs. No. 97 is 10 pitch Pica and No. 66 is 12 pitch Modern Elite. My typewriter is 10 pitch. No idea why both numbers are present. I also get thrown by the “W”s because the middle on some is as nigh as the outsides and on others goes up some amount less but hard to tell at that scale. It really is detective work, figuring out what you have.
Mine looks like an Elite 8 11 pitch, except mine has a closed numeral 4 and the fractions are vertical. It’s not listed here.
Any chance of fixing the broken scan on this page? I’m pretty sure I have a machine that has a typeface on that page lol
Have a look here: http://machinesoflovinggrace.com/manuals/OlympiaTypefaces.pdf
Thanks for posting this. I now know that I own an SG1 with 12pt elite #87, and an SM3 with 12pt Congress Elite.
I have two olympias, both with PICA typeface but on the slugs one is 12 and the other is 97
While both are listed here as PICA, are they supposed to be any different from each other??