In all fairness, back in the stone ages we used to center on mechanical typewriters all the time. It's just that the typist did the math rather than having the computer figure it out. :-)
Wrong.
There might have been an occasional case when the lines centered perfectly, but it was a function of the number of letters per line. With three lines, this is almost impossible to be mathematically perfect on a typewriter. I know. I used to do that. "Visually" centered, but not mathematically.
You just go to the center (you measured it), then backspace once for every two characters or spaces....
But it sure didn't look like the type on the letters in question.
I believe that this is going to be shown to prove to a lot more folks that CBS is on the Kerry payroll (so to speak). I'm hoping that there is a major backlash from this.
It is indeed possible to approximate your centering and get something there that is presentable, but since each letter is typed mechanically, it is virtually impossible to get it exactly centered like a word processor does. When you type a letter in a word processor it automatically readjusts every other letter to ensure equadistant variations around a center line. The word processer centers from the middle out in two directions whereas a typewriter centers in one direction from an approximation made going from a point slightly left of the center across the page.
If you had a typist who could do centering using proportional-spaced fonts, I'd like to meet her/him!
Yes, but you centered by hitting the spacebar repeatedly. This would not permit you to perfectly center the text. For example, assume the text was 1.8" wide. To center it on an 8 1/2"-wide piece of paper with a 2" margin, you'd have to space in 2.25" minus 0.9" = 1.35". If there were 12 spaces to the inch, your two choices would be spacing in 16 spaces (1.33"), or 17 spaces (1.42"). Given three separate lines with three separate widths, this would result in the lines being imperfectly centered.
A laser printer, on the other hand, doesn't have to space in increments of 1/12th of an inch. It aligns the text with 1/300th of an inch precision. We'd have to take a ruler to the text in this example to be sure, but eyeballing it it looks a lot more like 1/300th" precision than 1/12th" precision. The poster has made a great catch here.
Yes, that was certianly easy to do, IF YOU DON'T USE PURPORTIONAL TYPE!
To do the same with purportional type, you would have to compute the exact spacing for every letter, and space over the exact amount INCLUDING FRACTIONAL "SPACES". Old purportional typewriters could backspace less than one "real" space.
It may not have been possible at all to create this document with a typewriter, IF it proves that not even these sub-spaces will work exactly.
BUSTED!
This is hard-core proof!
In all fairness, back in the stone ages we used to center on mechanical typewriters all the time. It's just that the typist did the math rather than having the computer figure it out. :-)
That's exactly true, and if it wasn't necessary, I didn't do it.
I'm like everyone else here on FreeRepublic, hung up on this exciting bit of news. Sure hope this evidence sticks.
I recall doing that, but I also remeber it worked out if you had an even number of letters in the line but not for an odd number of letters.
Right you are. I was a technical editor and our typists did that routinely. Don't think anyone that skilled on mechanical typewriters is still on the job. Also, there were devices called Varitypers in which perforated tape was coded by the operator to accomplish centering and varied spacing (common until early '70s)). If these docs were forged it undoubtedly was through the anachronistic (to 1972) and unbiquitous MS Word or WordPerfect programs, whose inherent advances would be manifestly obvious in the forged documents. This must be investigated. But by whom? If forgery and a change of content did take place, would it have violated any law?
Yep. Count the letters, divide by two, find your center mark and backspace. Been there, done that. And damn the line with an odd number of letters...
>>>> It's just that the typist did the math rather than having the computer figure it out. :-)
That would be a heck of a lot of math for what purport to be personal memos!!!!
But you miss the point. The lines are centered based on the length, not the number of letters. Look closely at the first e in Intercepter. This is the center. Now look down and notice that the O in Box is slightly to the left of the e above. The typist had to be so good at centering he had to take into account the proportionate spacing.
The point is that even if you did this, the type set would never align perfectly. This is due to the algorithm used in MS Word. Not all of the letters are of the same exact size, and this unique signature cannot be duplicated on a typewriter of this era (as per experts in Weekly Standard Investigative Report due out tonight). Overlaying the two documsnts would yield some difference in spacing.
Check out the sloppy "cut and paste" job on the signature in two of the memos.
LLS
Try it with a proportional font. Try it as a military clerk typist. Try matching the precision of a word processor that can deal with a thousandth of an inch.
Yes- we did that when typing on older typewriters.
BUT--There is still a difference.
We were counting letters---regardless of the width of the letter: ie: w and i for instance. By counting only, we could NEVER get it perfectly "centered". Only "close"
This test shows the very minute adjustments the computer is able to make to center it very neatly, and the "overlap" shows how well it is centered.
I have an old Royal Typewriter, and I cannot get it to "center" something as nicely as this example.
Anyone who needs a sample from my typewriter- e-mail me privately and I will provide.
But there are half spaces in the example. Which meant the typist would have had to manually center the text. I remember spending hours doing it, but would a military man typing a memo to a personal file do it? I highly doubt it.