[Prokopton]

And I worked on one of their selectric / composer units in about 1972(it was an older unit) or so that produced near typeset quality, including kerning. It worked by your keying in the text, which was recorded on a mag card, and then played back with corrections and letterspacing and kerning applied. At least, that's how I remember it. Whether the Hawaii DOH had one of these units we don't know.

Now, that doesn't mean that the Regime hasn't produced a fraud here, only that the argument that typewriters did not kern is not accurate.

These units were large, bulky, slow machines designed for typesetting, not typewriting. They were totally unsuitable for use with a form.

Proportional spacing, available on some typewriters, is not kerning, it merely makes the fixed spacing of letters proportionate to their width.

[JoeA]

They were unsuitable for typing, but could be used in a manual mode, not dependent on the magnetic card reader. And yes, I know the difference between kerning and proportional spacing. But it’s my recollection that the later IBM selectrics were good enough to tuck in W and A, and other combos. I don’t want to split hairs, but only point out that the simple argument about typewriters not kerning is not absolutely true. Remember, the Obots will pick any flaw in an argument to build their fortress around.