Type It Up

A quiet, tactile typewriter for the browser.

Open the live app

Type It Up turns writing into a small mechanical ritual. Characters land in fixed cells on a sheet of paper, the carriage advances one column at a time, and every page carries the character of its machine, ribbon, and paper. It is deliberately closer to using a typewriter than to using a word processor.

The app runs entirely in the browser. There is no account, server, database, build step, or installation process. Documents and preferences are autosaved locally in the browser, and an editable project can be saved as a self-contained .tiu file. Export uses the browser's print pipeline to produce a true-size PDF.

What it can do

• Type on fixed cells with carriage movement, return, backspace, tab stops, bold, and underline.
• Choose between visual Office Standard and Travel Portable machines, with Pica or Elite spacing and distinct imprint character.
• Start a new document with fresh, aged, or well-used paper presets, and choose Letter, Legal, or A4 paper.
• Adjust Letter, Legal, or A4 paper; paper age and wear; ink condition; and machine wear.
• Add page-specific soft, burn-darkened edges, patterned folds, and up to two controlled edge or interior tears without damaging editable content.
• Use black record, blue-black, red review, or purple copy ribbon character.
• Draw with pen, pencil, or highlight nibs, and apply physical-looking whiteout corrections.
• Select, cut, copy, and paste without turning the page into flowing text.
• Add, duplicate, and remove pages with undo and redo across document edits.
• Keep the typing point fixed while the page rolls behind it.
• Use a collapsible tool rail, a single scrollable settings panel, optional rulers, page thumbnails, and a status line with live machine and carriage information.
• Enter browser fullscreen when available, with an in-app immersive fallback when it is not.
• Open Help & shortcuts for searchable guidance on typing, editing, paper, defects, saving, exporting, focus, and keyboard commands.
• Hover controls for concise explanations and the relevant keyboard shortcut where one exists.
• Save and reopen editable .tiu projects containing the document scene, deterministic paper and defect appearance data, reference previews, and the Courier Prime typeface.
• Hear key, carriage-return, and margin-bell sounds through the Web Audio API, with a mute option.
• Export paper-only pages through the browser's Save as PDF flow.

Try it

The easiest way to use Type It Up is the hosted version:

jimerb.github.io/Type-It-Up

To run it locally:

1. Keep the repository files together.

2. Serve this folder with the included helper:

   node local-server.cjs
   

   Or use any simple static web server:

   python -m http.server 3991
   

3. Open http://localhost:3991/ in Chrome, Edge, or Safari.

Opening index.html directly may work in some browsers, but serving the folder over HTTP avoids local-file restrictions around the runtime and fonts.

Controls

Input	Action
Printable character	Strike a character and advance one cell
Space	Advance without leaving ink
Backspace	Move the carriage back without erasing
Enter	Return to the left margin and advance one line
Arrow keys	Move one cell or line
Shift + Arrow keys	Extend a rectangular selection
Tab	Advance to the next tab stop
Home	Move to the left margin of the current line
Delete	Apply whiteout to the current cell or selection
Escape	Clear the current selection; close Help or New document
Ctrl/Cmd + Z	Undo
Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z or Ctrl/Cmd + Y	Redo
Ctrl/Cmd + B	Toggle automatic bold striking
Ctrl/Cmd + U	Toggle automatic underlining
Ctrl/Cmd + X	Cut the current selection
Ctrl/Cmd + C	Copy the current selection
Ctrl/Cmd + V	Paste the in-app clip or system clipboard text
Ctrl/Cmd + P	Open the browser print flow for export
Mouse wheel	Roll the paper while over the editor

Keyboard shortcuts are active after you click the paper. Clicking a tool, page, dialog, or another application ends editor focus so normal browser shortcuts continue to work.

Exporting

Choose Export or press Ctrl/Cmd + P. In the print dialog:

• Choose Save as PDF.
• Keep scale at 100%.
• Turn on background graphics so the paper tone and wear are retained.
• Page defects are included automatically; interior tears print as a white knockout with a visible torn-paper rim.
• Use the document's selected paper size when the printer offers an override.

The app uses a separate print layer, so the tool rail, caret, rulers, and selection controls do not appear in the exported document.

Saving editable projects

Choose Save project to download a single .tiu file, then use Open to continue editing it later. The project format is versioned and integrity-checked; it retains pages, strikes, corrections, highlights, freehand marks, page geometry, paper/ribbon settings, page-specific defects and seeds, stable resolved imperfections, and the last active carriage location. Browser layout and temporary editing state are deliberately excluded. Current saves use schema version 2; version 1 projects open as clean, defect-free pages and upgrade on their next save.

The active document autosaves to IndexedDB with a previous-good revision retained for recovery. A legacy local-storage copy is kept as a fallback and migration source; preferences remain in local storage. Autosave and downloaded project files are separate, so saving a .tiu file does not replace the browser's recovery copy.

New document and workspace settings

Choose New document to select the machine, paper size, and paper condition, then choose Roll in a sheet. The current page is not replaced until the new sheet is started. The Settings panel can show or hide rulers and the page rail, open the tools on launch, toggle typewriter sounds, choose a default paper size, or reset preferences.

Project layout

index.html                         GitHub Pages entry point
Type It Up App.dc.html             Full source document and app logic
support.js                         Browser runtime used by the app
project-format.js                  Versioned .tiu package, import validation, and recovery autosave
assets/fonts/                      Locally bundled Courier Prime typefaces
assets/machines/                   Transparent chooser artwork for both machines
local-server.cjs                   Dependency-free local server on port 3991
favicon.ico                        Browser icon
project-format.test.js              Regression tests for the `.tiu` project contract
type-it-up-header-transparent-cropped.png  Wordmark used by the app
TypeItUp_setup.md                  Detailed setup and implementation notes
Type It Up PRD.md                  Product requirements document
.github/workflows/pages.yml        GitHub Pages deployment workflow

index.html is the Pages-ready copy of Type It Up App.dc.html; both are kept so the original source filename remains available while the hosted site has a conventional entry point.

Privacy and dependencies

Your active document is recovered from IndexedDB in the current browser origin, with legacy local storage retained as a fallback. Type It Up does not upload or sync documents. The .tiu package includes its own editable content and Courier Prime typeface; the runtime still loads React, React DOM, Babel, IBM Plex Sans, and IBM Plex Mono from CDNs on first app load.

Courier Prime is distributed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1; its license is included at assets/fonts/OFL.txt.

Notes for contributors

The app is intentionally a small static project. There is no npm install, bundler, or build command. Keep support.js beside the HTML files, preserve the dark workshop palette, and keep the interactive app tree separate from the print-only tree. The detailed implementation guide in TypeItUp_setup.md documents the geometry, storage keys, export behavior, and modification cautions.

This is currently a public showcase repository. A project license can be added separately if the distribution terms need to be formalized.