{"id":303,"date":"2023-12-25T01:21:56","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T23:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/?p=303"},"modified":"2023-12-25T01:21:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-24T23:21:59","slug":"hermes-standard-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/hermes-standard-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Hermes Standard 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I have to admit it. I am a Hermes guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 10 years of buying, cleaning, repairing, using and selling typewriters, it became more and more obvious that the machines I used and liked the most were made by Hermes. There is just something that appeals to me. They somehow speak to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just the opposite can be said about Olympias. I had a Progress, a SM-3, a dozen of SM-9s, three Splendids and two SG-1. And none of them inspired me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t get me wrong. They are excellent machines. Each one of them. But when it comes to soul-compatibility, they are just not my type (writer). (I apologize to Sarah for shamelessly copying that one)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when it came down to writing my first novel<\/a>, I turned towards my Hermes 3000<\/a>. And I used it for writing the whole second draft. And while it served me very well, I came down to noticing the limitations of such a portable typewriter. Nothing serious, of course (other authors used portables to type dozens of novels and more) but still …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The main difference I noticed was the forgivingness in sloppy typing skills. And that matters quite a bit in these days. Why? Because nowadays you do not hand over typewritten pages to an editor. He or she wants it as a PDF. And because you don’t want to type it all over again on a computer keyboard, you use a wonderful piece of software technology called „OCR“. You scan the typewritten pages and through pure magic, you get the digital version of your text. If – and that’s the point – the software can read what you typed correctly. In most cases, this works fine. Sometimes though, if a letter was typed a little to lightly, mix-ups happen. So the cleaner, crisper, sharper and darker the imprint of your typing, the better results you get from OCR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My typing technique is, well, reasonable when considering that I grew up with the computers starting to emerge. I never owned a manual typewriter in my early years. I grew up using keyboards. So while doing somehow okay, my typing is not the best. And it sure is not what you could call heavy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is, where I take advantage from using a full sized typewriter (called a „standard“) over a portable one. Because they tend to be much more forgiving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And since I am a Hermes guy, I started to look around for Hermes standard typewriters. From the year of using my typewriter to write my novel, I learned that my machines have to be Elite, not Perl. Because every change of paper is a disruption of the creative process. So the less I have to put in a new sheet of paper, the better. That is why I set my margins to the outmost possible point, go with single linespacing and Elite in 13cpi. I use every inch of the paper that is available. And yes, I totally get Jack Kerouac and his idea to use a long roll of paper. If something like that would be available, I would get it right away. Never have to put in a new sheet of paper? A dream come true would that be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anyhow, I am looking for Hermes standard typewriters in Elite for a couple of years now. I found two Ambassadors, which I am a great fan of – but receiving them I found them to have Director’s Elite, not Elite. That font is not as good to read for me, as Elite.<\/p>\n\n\n

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So, until I will find my Ambassador with Elite, I might as well use this Hermes Standard 8 typewriter, which is a sweet machine as well. Not as forgiving as an Ambassador, but more than a Hermes 3000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you look at it, you might wonder about the crincle paint. Yes, it is not original. Since typewriters are work tools for me, I have no restraints on modifying one to the best of my needs. And yes, good looks are part of that. Because if you sit down every day for a few hours in front of such a machine and you find it truly ugly, you are putting an obstacle in your way, which simply does not have to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to admit it. I am a Hermes guy. After 10 years of buying, cleaning, repairing, using and selling typewriters, it became more and more obvious that the machines I used and liked the most were made by Hermes. There is just something that appeals to me. They somehow speak to me. Just the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6zpuW-4T","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/schmasch.de\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}