lajosnagyuk/ayfor

Ayfor is a typewriter emulator, not a text editor. Instead of a blank document you can freely rewrite, it gives you a virtual A4 sheet, one font, and no delete key. Every key you press gets appended to an ongoing, replayable log file, so the exact rhythm of your typing and any hesitations or casual edits stay visible afterward. The project is upfront that this is not meant as cryptographic proof that a human wrote the text, just an honest record of how it was typed. The tool tries to feel like an actual mechanical typewriter. Each simulated machine has its own quirks: typing fast makes the letters strike lighter, pausing makes them strike heavier, the ribbon gradually wears out and can be replaced, and the paper has visible grain and impression texture. The hammer sounds are real recordings from an old Olivetti typewriter, adjusted based on how hard each key is struck. A replay feature lets you watch a manuscript being retyped at the same pace it was originally written, including a title card marking any long breaks you took. Ayfor ships with different "typewriter packages" that change the look, font, and sound of the simulated machine, including a couple of packages inspired by real vintage Olympia typewriters. You can also build and install your own custom typewriter packages from a font, sound samples, and a few configuration files. Documents remember exactly which package they were written with, and switching machines mid-document requires explicitly saving and starting a new one. The project includes a graphical app plus a command-line tool called strike for importing plain text files, replaying sessions, exporting to PDF or other formats, and managing typewriter packages. The graphical app needs a C toolchain to build because of its graphics and audio libraries, while the command-line tool is plain Go and runs anywhere. Prebuilt downloads are available for macOS, Linux, and Windows.