8 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2026
    1. So, I fear the answer is that there is nothing practical to be done, but if anyone has any ideas of how to lighten the dark keytops, I'm all ears. My only thought is the risky move of printing new papers, but I just know I'd get the size and font wrong.But after years of neglect, I think she deserves to feel beautiful again. She's royalty, after all.

      reply to Zachary Thede at https://www.facebook.com/groups/721704878218903/posts/3075801049475929

      It's definitely doable! The only way to do this is to remove the keyrings (preferably with a keyring pliers, otherwise it's incredibly tedious) and to physically replace the key legends with new ones. Richard Polt has some of the process described here as well as as high resolution scans that you can use to print out keys. https://writingball.blogspot.com/2016/10/legendary.html

      Ames Supply Company used to sell keycards for doing this. Some of them had colors including green, so keep this in mind if you try something like creating rainbows across your keyboard or other visual fun. https://typewriterdatabase.com/1960-Ames_Gen_Cat_10-March.misc-supplies.manual

      Our friend Lucas Dul of Chicago Typewriter has a great YouTube video of the tool and some of the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYHrBjfQxpM

      As a fun example, Heiko Stolten recently did this on a Remington using custom made legends that use the font from the Netflix series Wednesday: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TypewriterCollectors/posts/10163537426144678/ If you ask nicely, they've got the original files if you need them for printing out .

      Good luck!

  2. Feb 2026
  3. Nov 2025