MingKwai Typewriter
Chinese&English typewriter
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
In 1947 Lin Yutang built a Chinese typewriter, the MingKwai. Lift the hood and watch it work: the type cylinder, preview drum and chains turn. Three keys, one character.
In 1947, in New York, the writer Lin Yutang built a Chinese typewriter and named it MingKwai: "clear and quick". Only one was ever made. Now it is on your screen: lift the hood, press three keys, and type a Chinese character.
Not a picture, but a working machine in 3D: every key goes down, the type cylinder turns, the preview drum and the chains follow, the hammer strikes and the paper moves up a character at a time.
THE MINGKWAI CHINESE TYPEWRITER
• Three keys, one character: a top key for the character's upper-left shape, a bottom key for its lower-right shape, and the magic eye shows eight candidates. Press 1 to 8 to pick one. For example: 清 = 氵 + 月 + 1.
• Lift the hood and watch the type cylinder turn to the bar, the preview drum follow on its chain and the carriage slide to the row; the motor and the clutch are in there too.
• Turn, tilt and zoom with two fingers to see the machine from any side.
• The magic eye's loupe: the candidates enlarged. Tap one to type it.
• Look up: enter Chinese text and the typewriter presses every key itself, and shows you how each character is typed.
• 72 keys and 36 octagonal type bars, rebuilt from the 1947 prototype and Lin Yutang's US patent.
• Vertical columns, right to left, 18 characters each, on to the next column by itself.
• More than 4,700 characters, all of the 3,500 most common. The original key assignment is lost; this one is worked out from the structure of the characters.
THE ENGLISH TYPEWRITER
• A classic portable: type bars fly up from the basket and strike through the ribbon; hold SHIFT and the whole basket drops.
• Black and red ribbon, the margin bell, the carriage return and pushing the carriage by hand, as on the real thing.
PAPER
• Four papers: cream xuan paper, natural kraft, light kraft and warm white parchment.
• Pull a finished page out to look at it, save it to Photos or share it.
• Every page is kept in a stack. Pick one up and type on.
THE MANUAL AND THE STORY
• A manual laid out like the original 1947 leaflet, with Lin Yutang's patent drawings.
• A timeline from Lin Yutang's birth to the prototype found in a basement and now at Stanford.
ON A FOLDING IPHONE
On iPhone Duo it is a typewriter. Closed, the outer display is its case: an old wooden box for the MingKwai, a leather one for the English machine; switch them in the corner. Open it like a laptop: the keyboard on the lower half, the paper on the upper half.
It works on every other iPhone and iPad too: tap a case on the table to open it.
GOOD TO KNOW
The app's interface is in Chinese. No account, no network, no data collected, no in-app purchases.
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The developer, AIRGO LIMITED, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
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Information
- Seller
- AIRGO LIMITED
- Size
- 37.8 MB
- Category
- Lifestyle
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 26.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 26.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 26.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 26.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 26.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- Simplified Chinese
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © AIRGO LIMITED