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Selectric typewriters made something that looked more like print than the typical typewriter. The Selectric type ball mechanism made multiple rapid impressions, producing a crisp dark letter, and the high end models had proportional typefaces. The Composer could even do justification.

An example of Selectric Composer output: http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/images/ps_sco2.jpg



Wikipedia has a print sample from the Composer system:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Sample_o...

on their Selectric page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric


> The Selectric type ball mechanism made multiple rapid impressions

Not sure if this is what you mean but no, the type element would just hit the paper through the ribbon once. The crispness comes entirely from the formulation of the carbon film ribbon.




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