Gothic Workshop
Typing MuseumA century and a half of keys, from the writing ball to the buckling spring.

Help & support

Typing Museum for macOS

Almost every question is one of the first two. Both have the same shape: the app is working, but macOS hasn't yet been told to let it listen, or Apple hasn't yet been asked to hand your purchase back.

I hear nothing when I type in other applications

This is the common one, and it isn't a fault. macOS won't let any app know that a key was pressed in another app unless you grant it Input Monitoring. Until you do, Typing Museum can only hear keys pressed while its own window is in front, which is why the typing pad works and your email doesn't.

  1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring.
  2. Switch Typing Museum on. If it isn't listed, open the app and click Grant… in the notice at the foot of its window, and macOS will add it.
  3. Quit Typing Museum and open it again. macOS only hands the permission over to a freshly started app.

If it's switched on and you still hear nothing, check that sounds aren't turned off: the speaker button at the bottom right of the window, or Turn On Sounds in the menu bar menu.

Granting this doesn't let the app read what you type. It sees which key moved and nothing else: not the letter, not your clipboard, not the app you're in. And it keeps none of it. The privacy page sets out exactly what it does.

I paid for the full collection and it's locked again

A purchase belongs to your Apple Account, not to one Mac, so it can always be brought back. Choose Restore Purchase from the Typing Museum menu while its window is open, or from its menu bar menu.

Two things to check: you must be signed in to the App Store with the account that made the purchase, and Family Sharing is on, so if someone in your family group bought it, restoring on your own account will find it.

Which machines can I type on without paying?

Three: the IBM Model F122, the Olivetti Lettera 22 and the Triumph Matura. They're the full experience, not demos: a manual portable, an electric buckling-spring board and a mid-century office machine, chosen because between them they cover most of what a keyboard can sound like.

Everything else about all 131 machines is free and always was: every photograph, every history, the innovations story, and the sources behind each recording. The museum is free to walk around. The purchase is for typing on the exhibits.

Some machines make no sound at all

67 of the 131 machines have a recording behind them. The other 64 are there to be read about. For some, no usable recording exists anywhere; for others, what could be found wasn't good enough to put a name under. They're marked, so you can tell before you click, and they stay out of the list unless you tick Show models with no sounds.

Where do the recordings come from?

Every one is public domain, CC0 or Creative Commons, and every one is credited inside the app under Sources & Credits with its title, author, licence and a link to the original.

Where a machine is too rare to have been recorded, another machine of the same mechanism stands in for it. The app says so on that machine's page, and names the one actually recorded.

Can I use it in German or Japanese?

Yes. From version 1.2 the whole app, museum texts included, is in English, German and Japanese. It follows your Mac's language; to choose one yourself, use Typing Museum → Language. The change is instant. Names, makers and years stay as they are.

Will it run on my Mac?

It needs macOS 13 Ventura or later and runs natively on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs. It lives in the menu bar and puts no icon in the Dock until you open a window.

Removing the app

Drag Typing Museum from your Applications folder to the Bin. Nothing of yours was ever stored anywhere else, and nothing was ever sent anywhere, so there's nothing to delete from a server.

Still stuck? Write to info@gothicworkshop.com.

It helps to include your macOS version, whether Input Monitoring is switched on, and what you expected to hear.