Wednesday, October 01, 2008

what would a reader write?

When Moira O'Riordan stopped by Timeless Treasures a while back and began arranging old sign letters on a large table, the word she was putting together looked familiar but puzzling. QWERTY, she spelled, as you can see here.
Moira, a resident in radiology at UCSF, explained that QWERTY refers to the modern typing system used by millions every day, named for the first six letters on the keyboard.
"I chose Q.W.E.R.T.Y. because I am a big reader and I love the idea that the placement of typewriter keys was actually based on research to make typing in English easier," she says.
Intrigued about the history of the letters of the alphabet, as well as the typewriter and its odd keyboard arrangement? Moira recommends Quirky Qwerty: A Biography of the Typewriter and Its Many Characters by Torbjorn Lundmark.