Type Sample, Pt. 1: Pangrams!

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If you’ve ever taken a typing class, you may be familiar with these sentences:

  1. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
  2. The five boxing wizards jump quickly.
  3. Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.

These are not simply cute one-line poems, they are pangrams: sentences containing every letter of the alphabet. Go ahead, re-read them and see if you can spot each letter yourself. I’ll wait!

The legacy of pangrams is tied to typing machines because they make 26 unique demands of each finger over the course of one short sentence. As a typing exercise, they’re intended to build dexterity and train precise finger action on each key. You may remember them as pinky torture. Huh. “Pinky” is a word typed entirely with the right hand, and which requires the pinky to type the letter p. Pinky. pinkypinkypinkypinky. Ugh.

I’ve always been a very strong touch typist but I’m not without my faults. So, to the hunt-and-peckers, fountain penners, and virtual screen thumbers: know that I judge no writing medium or skill level. Writing is good at any speed so long as it’s done using your mind.

By the way, did you know you’re meant to use both shift keys? Like, they’re not a lefty/righty handedness thing? Yeah, apparently, you’re supposed to shift left hand letters with the right shift key and vice versa. I never developed that skill, so now a lifetime of left-shifting on computer keyboards has left my right pinky useless on carriage shift machines.

But I digress.

Pangrams are not only useful for practicing touch typing, but they are also functional tools for typewriter restoration. A pangram is the first thing I type when I inspect a new machine. I use pangrams to check functionality throughout a restoration project. And a pangram will always appear on my final type sample of a completed machine. In fact, I decided to write one of my own:

quick fix joy, zebra leaps thud. my vow, begin again.

Why go through the trouble? Because I am insane. But also because it gives me quick assessment of a variety of critical functions of the machine. Are the type bars moving freely and quickly? Is the imprint of each character clear and crisp? Is the ribbon vibrator satisfying? You heard me.