Hacker News Reader

Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how many people here reading the title even know what Liquid Paper is.

Hasn't it been ubiquitous worldwide for ~50 years, even amongst today's primary/grade schoolers?

I recall reading a recent article around paper sales being down but liquid paper sales remaining unusually strong. Wish I could find it.

Edit: Found the article in question https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/who-s...

Internationally I'd guess not under that brand name (never heard of it)? And at least here in Germany, in school in the 90s/00s we almost exclusively used ink eraser pens, not the equivalents to Liquid Paper - but then again those parts of Europe are probably unusual internationally by sticking so much to fountain pens in school.

Never heard of it growing up in the UK. We used Tipp-Ex, which Wikipedia says is a German brand. Not sure if it's the same formula or just similar.

It's a different product created about five years after Liquid Paper, but grew in Europe while Liquid Paper was growing in US.

Same here over in Sweden, I would go so far as to say that it's gone complete genericized trademark. I would have to think in order to even come up with the proper generic name for Tipp-Ex (i.e. something like "correction fluid"), and it feels like nobody would understand me.

Disclosure: I don't use correction fluid, although I remember owning a bottle of Tipp-Ex sometime in the 90s when handling printed paper was more common for me.

In Italy it's called bianchetto, and it was already on its way out when I was in school 25 years ago. The smart folks had white adhesive strips, and the smarter folks used computers already. But to my parents' generation, it was essential.

I don’t know. I haven’t used it since maybe the late 1970s when I last used typewriters regularly. Maybe my secretaries used it for a bit longer.

There was a long overlap, when the same office might be using both computers and typewriters.

For example, not all internal processes might be on the computer. Or external processes often still used paper forms, especially externally. A typewriter was also handy for shipping/courier forms, and for addressing envelopes. (When I was doing shipments for a small computer products wholesaler, UPS still had us record shipments as line items in carbon-forms book, and tear off the top sheet or more to hand to the driver when they came to pick up the boxes for the day.)

Somewhere in there, the IBM Selectric II Correcting typewriter came out, which I imagine took some Liquid Paper sales. I had a chance to use one of these, after using computers for years, and they were still a blast. The "mechanical keyboards" meme has nothing on the visceral, powerful typing experience of a Selectric II. (I fully intend to get at least one, in excellent condition, once I'm out of student/startup-apartment mode.)

The 'BAMBAMBAM SHABAM' as you type and then hit carriage return. The desk vibrating from the force of the impacts. You're right, it was an experience.

I'm guessing the GP was commenting on the fact that very few people use type writers any more, and much less if people had hear of Liquid Paper

In Australia we use white out :)

When I pick up a loaded trailer at a shipper, or after they load an empty trailer that I brought, they give me a bill of lading, paperwork that I eventually give to the receiver, and present to law enforcement if necessary.

The BoL includes details about the freight, from/to parties, the carrier (me), etc. And the serial number of the trailer seal.

Sometimes I notice that the number on the seal doesn't match the paper work. I take the paperwork to the shipping office. They either print out corrected paperwork, or they use whiteout (or Liquid Paper) to cover the incorrect number and write in the correct one.

I still use it. Makes a mess of my computer monitor, however.

Weird reading the other comments, in Argentina it was marked as Liquid Paper.. other brands came later but we refer to all of them as liquid paper.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com