Typewriter-Derived Printers

Several dissimilar computer printers were simply computer-controllable versions of existing electric typewriters. The Friden Flexowriter and IBM Selectric typewriter were the most-general examples. The Flexowriter printed with a conservative typebar mechanism while the Selectric used IBM's well-known "golf ball" printing mechanism. In either case, the letter form then struck a ribbon which was pressed beside the paper, printing one character at a time. The utmost speed of the Selectric printer (the faster of the two) was 15.5 characters per second.