Carriage · Stillcraft

What's inside

Everything Carriage does.

Only forwards

⟵ only steps the carriage back, so the next letter lands on top. Strike a word out with the x lever, or paint it over with correction fluid and type again once it's dry. Twelve brushes a day, and a new bottle every morning.

The bell and the carriage

The bell rings eight characters before the margin. At the margin the keys lock until you pull the chrome lever. Tap the sheet to roll the platen anywhere; “Write without looking back” hides everything above the line you're on.

Round keys

Keys in chrome rings, Russian and English letters, a shift that locks on a second press. Every strike lands a little off the line, and the type bars clack: the sounds are recorded from real typewriters. A Bluetooth keyboard turns the phone into the machine.

The red half of the ribbon

The ribbon is black on top and red below. Flip the lever for what hurts or angers you, and every red line is gathered in one place. The underline key sends a word to the index.

Ribbons wear out

A ribbon lasts about ten pages and fades as it goes. Wear one out and a new colour turns up in the box.

Three machines

The office machine is heavy and loud, with a clogged o and a high e. The portable has smaller type, a leaning a and a k that barely prints. The electric is even and quiet: it hums instead of ringing and returns the carriage by itself.

Diary pages and index cards

A diary page is dated by the dater and goes into the binder. An index card holds a note, a recipe or a list; it's filed by its first line and can be typed again, with the earlier versions kept behind it.

Telegrams and letters

A telegram is all capitals, its full stops become STOP, and it's paid by the word. A letter goes through carbon: send the original, burn it or keep it in the drawer; the copy stays either way.

Stamps, folders and a drawer

Rubber stamps instead of tags, and you can have your own made. Case folders tied with string; any of them can go into the drawer, which opens with the phone's lock. The archive has search, the index and the red lines.

Time

Paper yellows with age. The wastebasket is taken out on Monday morning; until then a ball of paper can be smoothed out, creases and all. Now and then a page from a year ago slips out of the binder.

The counter

Mechanical drums show how far the carriage has travelled, along with strikes, lines, bells, words struck out and ribbons worn out.

Out of the drawer

Send a sheet as a picture, a folder or the whole desk as a PDF. A backup is one file, saved wherever you like.

Screens

Captured in Carriage.

Carriage: The desk — **The desk**Walnut, green baize, a banker's lamp.

Carriage: At the machine — **At the machine**Round keys and the red half of the ribbon.

Carriage: A diary page — **A diary page**Dated, stamped, filed.

Carriage: A letter — **A letter**The carbon copy stays.

Carriage: A telegram — **A telegram**Capitals, STOP, paid by the word.

Carriage: The card drawer — **The card drawer**Filed by the first line.

Carriage: Typed again — **Typed again**Earlier versions stay behind it.

Carriage: The red lines — **The red lines**Everything typed in red, in one place.

Carriage: The workshop — **The workshop**Three machines and a box of ribbons.

Carriage: The counter — **The counter**How far the carriage has travelled.

Carriage: A year ago — **A year ago**A page slips out of the binder.

Carriage: The wastebasket — **The wastebasket**Taken out on Monday morning.

Three machines, each with its quirks

Machine	Year	What it's like
The office machine	1952	Heavy and loud, a bell like a tram's; the o is clogged and the e sits high
The portable	1964	Smaller type and a lighter touch; the a leans and the k barely prints
The electric	1983	Every letter as even as the next; hums instead of ringing and returns the carriage by itself

Get it

Get Carriage.

Install

Version: v1.0.0
File: Carriage.apk
Requires: Android 9.0 (API 28) or newer. No Google services needed.
Permissions: None. No internet: sheets leave the phone only when you send them yourself, as a picture or a PDF. No account, no ads, no analytics.
License: MIT · fonts under the SIL Open Font License · typewriter sounds under MIT, Apache-2.0 and CC0

Download the APK on your phone.
Open it and allow installs from this source when Android asks.
Roll in a diary page and type the first line.

Download APK All releases

Build from source

JDK 17+ (Android Studio's bundled JBR works) and the Android SDK. Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Room, DataStore; the desk, the lamp, the machines, the paper and every strike are drawn in code.

git clone https://github.com/bigdevwhale/carriage.git
cd carriage
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest assembleDebug   # app.carriage.dev, next to a real install
./gradlew assembleDebug -Pdemo              # app.carriage.demo: a desk half a year in
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest -Prender --tests '*RenderArt*' && python tools/shots.py   # screenshots
python tools/sounds.py                      # fetch the recorded typewriter sounds

Good to know

Questions people ask.

What if I really need to fix a typo?

Paint it over with correction fluid and type again once it's dry; you get twelve brushes a day. Or strike it out with x's and keep going. On a typewriter that's how it's done.

Is anything I type ever lost?

No. A sheet is stored as the ordered list of everything that landed on it, struck-out words and painted-over letters included. A crumpled sheet waits in the wastebasket until Monday morning.

Can I use a real keyboard?

Yes. Connect a Bluetooth keyboard and the phone becomes the machine: the bell, the margin and the lever all still apply.

Why does it ask for no permissions?

It doesn't need any, not even the internet. Sheets leave the phone only when you send them yourself, and the drawer opens with the phone's own lock. A backup is one file that you save where you like.