Oki Electric Industry announced the carry-type "Lettermate8" Japanese language word processor on May 17, 1984.
The Lettermate8 was positioned as a low-end model of the existing Lettermate800, 150 and 85, and had the following features.
- (1) Easy-to-carry "carry type"
- When the keyboard was closed, the system was very compact. It could be carried anywhere and easily stored.
- (2) All-in-one type
- This machine was the ultra-small all-in-one type, incorporating a main unit, display, printer, floppy disk drive and keyboard, so no connection between them was necessary.
- (3) Kana and romaji input systems and kanji conversion in phrase units.
- There were two input systems: kana/kanji automatic conversion and romaji/kanji automatic conversion, and conversion in phrase units could be done with both conversions.
- (4) Sophisticated editing capabilities
- Support was provided for sophisticated editing capabilities, such as a line apportioning function and text inset function.
- (5) Equipped with thermosensitive transfer printer
- Noiseless printing, and high-speed printing (30 characters/second) was achieved.
- (6) Revolutionary HELP function
- (7) Document file compatibility
- The system had file compatibility with the higher-end Lettermate85.
| Lettermate8 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Input | Input system | Kana/Kanji automatic conversion system and romaji/kanji automatic conversion system | |
| Dictionary | Basic dictionary: Approx. 30,000words, User dictionary: Approx. 3,000words | ||
| Number of usable characters | 3,418chars, External char.: 120chars JIS level 2 characters were provided as pattern files, and could be used as external characters |
||
| Display | Display | Liquid crystal, 40chars x 2lines (vertical/horizontal scrolling capable) | |
| Display pattern | 16x15 dot-matrix, capable of layout display | ||
| Output | Print mechanism | Thermal transfer | |
| Print speed | Approx. 30chars/s | ||
| Character size | 3.5x3.5mm, and double-size | ||
| Character pattern | 24x24 dot matrix | ||
| Max. number of characters per line | 59 | ||
| Paper | B5, A4, 10-inch wide continuous paper | ||
| FDD | 5inch double-sided double-density floppy disk drive x1 Capacity of approx. 30 documents/floppy |
||
| Editing/Correction functions | Subscripts, framing, line and justification, centering, apportioning, underline, tab, column justification, line pitch variation, character spacing setting, half-return, delete, insert, correct, move, copy, search, table generation, text inset, line start/end rules | ||
| Other functions | Document name list display/printing, external character creation, use vocabulary registration | ||
| Standards and size | Power supply, Power consumption | AC100V 50/60Hz, approx. 50W | |
| Dimensions | W380xD491xH145mm | ||
| Weight | Approx. 8.5kg | ||
