Curious about this font posted on r/VintageMenus: "The Canopy, Brighton Michigan, February 16, 1965"

[JonathanB]

Here's the original post on Reddit. It looks like an IBM Selectric font, but I've been unable to find a match.

I'm just curious about the font name and how this menu was produced. (Typewriter?) I don't need the actual font itself.

Thank you!

[Riccardo Sartori]

4 hours ago, JonathanB said:

how this menu was produced. (Typewriter?)

It appears so.

4 hours ago, JonathanB said:

It looks like an IBM Selectric font

Selectrics weren’t the only typewriters with script typestyles. I think your sample is from a Smith-Corona Electra , upon which this typeface is based. A very similar design was available on the Hermes 3000.

[Jonathan Butterick]

6 minutes ago, Riccardo Sartori said:

It appears so.

Selectrics weren’t the only typewriters with script typestyles. I think your sample is from a Smith-Corona Electra , upon which this typeface is based. A very similar design was available on the Hermes 3000.

That’s amazing, thank you. I had no idea that typewriters were available with such unusual, unchangeable fonts. So you might need an entirely separate typewriter for your more formal correspondence. Fascinating.

[Gecko]

Jonathan with the selectric typewriter you only need to change the actual printing head. Here is a video to demonstrate the process:

 

[Jonathan Butterick]

4 hours ago, Gecko said:

Jonathan with the selectric typewriter you only need to change the actual printing head. Here is a video to demonstrate the process:

 

Right. I know the Selectric has changeable heads. I’ve owned a few. But apparently this font is from a different typewriter, a Smith-Corona Electric, which uses typebars, which are *not* changeable. So apparently you’d have one typewriter dedicated to a font. Which is probably why the IBM Selectric destroyed the Smith-Corona.