At the beginning of the 1900's, typewriters continued to look the same although they had some major changes which helped to standardize them into what our keyboards look like today. These changes include simple things such as font striking, the shift key, noiseless designs, and different character sizes. These changes all helped to improve the typewriter and make typing more efficient.
Font-Striking
The earliest typewriters had the keys right above the paper so that the typer was unable to see the words that were ring printed until the paper moved out from under the cartridge. To make the typing visible as it happened, inventors developed typewriters whose keys struck forward to hit the paper in front of it. By doing this typewriters became faster and people were able to view the text as it was being typed.
Shift Key
The shift key was a major change made to earlier typewriters that still affects us to this day. This key was made to physically shift the paper holding carriage or the basket of type bars. This resulted in a reduced amount of type bars due to the fact that each type bar could hold two different characters. This was originally created in order to switch from lowercase letters to capital letters and also to be able to use symbols such as #, $, and &.
Character Sizes
The first typewriters only had typing available in one size, which was unable to be toggled with. However, models that were able to change character sizes began to be invented.