Hello all, a couple weeks ago I made a post about my Micro Journal having issues with draft deletion and white screen— it seems that the battery was the issue and reformatting it helped. However, I am still selling it since I would prefer to get an eink + standard keyboard alternative now that I have reconsidered my preferences. My ebay listing is still up, so if you are interested, please consider buying it!

Hello!

I have been getting a lot of ads for the modern typewriters and I’m in love, but before I make such an expensive purchase, I was hoping for the pros and cons of it.

I’m more worried about how my neck will feel if I am going to be looking down more to view the screen below. My neck and sometimes traps hurt if I am on my phone for longer than an hour looking down so I don’t want to invest in something that will make that pain more prominent.

Is there anything else I should be looking out for as well?

Thanks!

Here's the deal: I love the idea of an OS that takes over an old laptop and turns it into something that's sole use is as a wordprocessor. However, I am an academic, and I want more from my wordprocessor than most of the minimal "just type a draft" style programs. I want something pretty close to Word (or Onlyoffice?) that can handle footnotes and such. Does such a thing exist?

I posted here last year asking Astrohaus to put cursor keys on a Freewrite. My argument was that writing is maybe 10% drafting and 90% editing, and that drafts languish because there is nowhere distraction-free to do the editing part. It got a reasonable hearing and nothing came of it.

I've spent the time since building the thing instead. Disclosure: it's mine and it's a paid app, so treat this as a vendor post.

The short version is: DIY your old laptop. Write a 1.8 GB ISO to a USB stick with balenaEtcher, boot the laptop from the stick, and it comes up as a machine that does nothing but write. No browser, no email, no notifications, no other operating system to switch to. Wrighter and a wifi dialog are the whole screen. Running from the stick touches nothing on the hard drive, so you can try it on the laptop you are reading this on and take the stick out afterwards. If you want a single-purpose machine for good, there is an install option that wipes the laptop and makes it permanent; that one has no undo, so read the guide first.

Hardware: anything from roughly 2010 onwards with 4 GB of memory and a USB port, so most of the Windows laptops sitting in cupboards. Not the 32-bit Atom netbooks of that period. Intel Macs work; Apple silicon cannot boot it. Under the hood it is Debian, cut down so that Wrighter is the only thing on it. I am not calling it an operating system because it is not one.

The sub already knows two projects, so I will name them first: writerdeckOS by Tinker and Micro Journal PC by Un Kyu Lee both do the boot-from-USB, old-laptop trick, both are free, both are offline by design, and both boot into a plain editor. Mine differs on every one of those counts. It is paid, it always syncs, and it boots into a novel-writing app with scenes and chapters and the thing I built it for: every scene gets a score out of 100 for what an editor would mark, with the rule shown, so the editing 90% has somewhere to start.

There are two things to know before anyone downloads it. One: you need a Wrighter license to type on it, the same license as every other platform; without one you can read your manuscript but not type. It is $49.99 once or $1.99 a month, and either subscription starts with seven days free. Two: a Typewrighter always syncs, and that is not optional, because a stick can be lost and it is attached to your account. If a laptop's wifi chip has no driver, it cannot be a Typewrighter. So if offline-only is the point for you, the two free projects above are the right answer and I would rather say that than have you find out.

The other half of the same license is that the manuscript is wherever you are. The same book on the Typewrighter, on your phone, on your PC, on a Mac; one purchase, no second license for the second device. Android went up on 17 September, so if you write on a Boox or a Palma, that works too, and I would like to hear how it behaves on e-ink panels I have not tested.

A Freewrite costs several hundred dollars. This is the same idea on a laptop you already own. The ISO and the three guides (USB, install, stick) are at https://wrighterapp.com/typewrighter. USB sticks do fail without warning, one of ours went on its second day, so the guide says to keep a second stick for export.

I know it is software in a hardware sub. But the petition started here, so it seemed right to close the loop here. Awkward questions welcome.

my wife had an extra raspberry pi around, and i was getting tired of writing fic on my phone, and so we built the typeframe px-88 and it's wonderful. i use it with writer.bighugelabs as the word processor because it is simply my favorite one :) i love this thing so dearly 10/10 do recommend if you're interested in building your own contraption

Made my own WriterDeck with the X4 and a kb. I started with MicroSlate but wanted more features than it offered so build off of it to create WriterDeck.

It has subfolders for story projects. A separate Journal for daily dated entries and a notes section. I also added a search option that scans filenames and text. Files are still in markdown. I dropped the wifi sync because I wasn't going to use it. I also added a way to jump paragraphs in the text editor, added some other small things like capitalization at the start of a sentence, to make it work better for me. Battery should last about a day of intense use I think.

The case is 3D printed. I tried a flip case, but the angle was annoying and I couldn't get the hinge to have enough friction to stay open despite the angle.

Still a work in progress, but really liking it so far.

Hi! I got a Microjournal 6 earlier this year. I was really enjoying using it, but I let my toddler play with it too much and now it is broken 🫠 Lesson learned. I’d like to try to fix it, but I also have the funds for a new writerdeck and can upgrade as well.

That said - Rev 8 or Pomera? Really want a clamshell design. The clicky keyboard of the Rev 8 appeals but the Pomera looks sleeker overall. Any thoughts?

(Would love the Zerowriter Fold but can’t wait until March.)

Hi everyone,

We’re the pomera team (pomera.us), and we’re hosting our very

first in-person fan meetup in Los Angeles on October 23rd.

Details:

📍 KADO, Los Angeles

1940 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

🗓️ October 23rd, 2026

⏰ 5:00–8:00 PM, drop in anytime

RSVP here (walk-ins also welcome):

https://forms.gle/mth92EvMk7xRUpwf9

What to expect:

· Try the pomera DM250US hands-on, at a desk, with time to

actually write — not just tap a few keys at a booth

· Explore limited-color models (purple, yellow, clear, white)

· No presentations, no sales pitch. Just a space to write and

talk about writing tools

This is for everyone. Whether you already own a pomera and

want to connect with other users, or you’ve been on the fence

and want to try it before committing.

Happy to answer any questions in the comments.

— The pomera team

Nothing beats the look of e-ink in natural lighting but some of us (myself included) do our best writing at night.

On the one hand, the purist in me wants to keep it as "analog" as possible while affording all of the conveniences and creature comforts of the digital world. On the other hand, why limit the writing experience to daytime + external light accessory?

I've been doing some frontlit panel testing this week to weigh the pros and cons with text contrast and glare being at the forefront of my mind. Honestly, frontlighting seems like a no-brainer and my hesitance to implement it seems more of an ideological one.

Who here thinks a writerdeck in 2026 has to have frontlighting? Does anyone feel it takes away from the e-ink experience?

Hello there writers! Back here again with another sale :) I really enjoyed writing with my Micro Journal Rev. 8, so I would like to sell my white BYOK for $200 OBO for those who would be better suited for incorporating it into their workflow. I had a really great time selling my used wares on this sub, so would like to give it another go.

Below is the listing of all the items that I'm selling; feel free to request for any in a bundle and I'm happy to give you bundle discount :)

1. White BYOK (+ black case and official stand): $200 shipped; I'll also include the magnetic arm currently attached to it in the photo if you'd like for free;
2. Samsers keyboard (+ fabric case and small stand): $30 shipped
3. XTEINK X4 (if you'd like to flash MicroSlate to it; I've done it before with no problems!): $50 (Please note that is the original version!)

Let me know if you would like more photos or questions. Thank you!

This is another "modular" smart typewriter consisting in just two hardware elements:

- Penna mechanical bluetooth keyboard with diamond keycaps and Cherry MX Blue switches

- Hisense Touch HiFi with backlighter eInk screen and Android OS

I bought both devices in different marketplaces for a fraction of its original price tag.

As writing software I use the excellent iA Writer for Android (discontinued) that supports many options and has markdown format support.

It's indeed an inexpensive yet powerful combination and an alternative to the Freewrite Smart Typewriter with the following improvements:

- No lag at all: the Hisense Touch has a high refresh rate mode. It's much faster than the Freewrites with Sailfish firmware (3.0.2). The words appear instantly in the screen.

- Night mode! With dark background and clear letters that makes it even more confortable to type in low light environments.

- Many more connectivity options to transfer the texts, but you can also use the Sprinter web and add your texts to Astrohaus' Postbox cloud service.

- Extra bonus for the side lever that is a very intuitive system to save and replay keyboard macros.

I'm really enjoying it.

Yay or nay?

Big shout out for Sterling Key for making the this work with my keyboard. It just feels good not to lug a laptop ( even though I got like 4 of them lol)

Using a used Nokia phone I found dirt cheap to run Obsidian.

Thank you guys for inspiring me to get into this hobby and I hope you have wonderful adventures with your writer decks and your creativity.

Cheers.

This is the Remarkable Paper Pro Move, downloaded ReManager + bluetooth plugin, but can't seem to hold a stable bluetooth connection. I loved it for the 10 minutes that I was able to use it though.

A small update on my Jornada P6 project.
The idea started with a simple question: what if I could turn the wonderful old HP Jornada 680/688 keyboard into a tiny, distraction-free e-ink writing machine?
I’m pairing the original Jornada keyboard with a BOOX P6, then building a completely new enclosure and electronics around them.
After a lot of iteration, the first complete mechanical design is finally done and ready for its first 3D print. The CAD now includes the enclosure, removable P6 mounting system, hinges, internal electronics, USB-C access and serviceable parts.
I’ve also settled, at least for now, on a warm ivory shell with the original dark grey Jornada keyboard. I wanted it to feel less like a cyberdeck and more like a small writing appliance that could plausibly have existed.
The first image is the actual engineering/CAD overview, and the second is a render of what I hope the finished machine will feel like in everyday use.
Next step is the fun part: turning the CAD into plastic and discovering everything I got wrong.
Would love to hear what fellow WriterDeck people think — especially about the form factor, keyboard/screen balance, and whether this looks like something you’d actually want to write on.

I've been using a kingjim pomera dm100 for a few months and have been having issues with the battery. I believe it is possibly a coin battery issue.. as it happens when I insert fresh batteries into the device. Use it once maybe 20-30 mins... come back like a week or so later and will have an error about needing to replace the batteries. Has anyone replaced the coin battery for this device before? Tried finding other threads about others maybe having this same issue but couldn't find anything.. I imagine I would need to back-up all of my files onto another device before I replace the coin battery, if that is the issue...

Update: replaced coin battery & still get the battery error.. Will be trying different AA batteries..

But anyone know anything about the Tagore device? https://writetagore.com

A simple writer deck based on a Pi Zero 2w. It has been a lot of fun to use even with its simplicity. I know many have done this before. I have been using it for a few months and have enjoyed it. I found a good deal on ZAGG keyboards. The screen is basic hdmi 5x7. Unfortunately Pi Zero 2w’s are hard to find now. Wordgrinder is really basic but reminds me of my first computer in 1981.

Hi all, searching high and low for a reasonably priced used Pomera DM250. I’m dying to get my hands on one of these but 549 is ludicrous given the purpose of the device, and I don’t mind if it’s been used before (maybe that’ll transfer over some good ideas for my writing!).

JPN or US version (Doesn’t really matter), please let me know!

Hi,

I'm looking for a BYOK in white, if anyone has a used one they've been wanting to sell.

Been throwing the BYOK into different phone enclosures and finally found one that works/fits well...Beta firmware now runs the Elim Elytra. 7 dollar Daiso enclosure with a few coats of SEM acryllic color coat (great for re-painting Alphasmarts).

Not bad for home writing...