About

I've always been fascinated by simple, functional things. Typewriters embody this perfectly — they evoke a sense of nostalgia for a bygone era. This feeling is similar to my love for old jazz music. One Sunday afternoon, while listening to swing music on my record player and reading a book, I felt inspired to bring a bit of that old world into the modern day.

This inspiration led to the creation of a simple web app that mimics some features of old typewriters (and to be fair enough, Anthropic's Claude helped me with that).

And here's a result - it's extremely basic: it can't do much, and if you make a mistake, it's not easy to correct. Just like a real typewriter.

Lettera is the name of an Olivetti typewriter model. I find the name ingenious because it references an actual typewriter from the 1950s and has an interesting etymological origin.

Despite how complex the typewriter actually is (and this app as well), it's very simple to use. Keep in mind that, just like a real typewriter, you can't delete characters you've already typed (but you can copy and paste the typed text into any text editor and edit it there).

Toggle font color (black/red) Toggle music on/off Infopanel Toggle light/dark mode (day/night) Change typewriter style

Clear text and set blank page (*) Copy written text (*) Export written text to PDF (*)

(*) To display the menu, you must have at least one character typed on the typewriter and move the mouse cursor over the typewriter area — the menu will appear briefly and disappear again unless the mouse is moved again or the cursor hovers over the menu.

I created all the typewriter illustrations myself (that's why they look like that). Although I tried to replicate the original as closely as possible, I am not a professional 3D artist and so all the illustrations went into Affinity Designer. Please be lenient - I know the details and light reflections on the surface don't match, but my goal was to create a functional and seemingly satisfactory solution, not an exact and perfect simulation.

The music is AI generated by Surprising_Media.

Icons of typewriters are from Qaisir Mehmood.

Archivio Storico Olivetti

Jarek Černý

I am just a guy based in Prague, Czech Republic. My passionate is about creating simple, functional, and beautiful things. I am also a jazz enthusiast and love listening to old records while working on my projects. I am always looking for new challenges and opportunities to learn and grow. If you would like to get in touch with me, feel free to reach out via email or connect with me on social media. I am always open to new ideas and collaborations, and I would love to hear from you.

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