All models in the Wheelwriter range possess some amount of electronic memory, acting as a data buffer and allowing for a number of advanced features, including algorithmic centering of text on a line, basic spell-checking, and word-by-word erasure of text (either via white correction ribbon or via Lift-Off adhesive correction ribbon), among other features.[3]
A variant of the Wheelwriter, called the Wheelprinter, is essentially a Wheelwriter without the keyboard and with a parallel communication interface, allowing it to be used with a number of personal computers (including IBM's own PC).[4]: 157–161 The Wheelprinter is capable of printing 25 characters per second.[5]
The Wheelwriter was introduced in October 1984 with two models: the Wheelwriter 3 and the Wheelwriter 5; the Wheelprinter was also announced simultaneously. The Wheelwriter was IBM's first daisy wheel typewriter and served as the replacement to their long-lived and commercially successful IBM Selectric typewriter series.[5] All models in the Wheelwriter series were manufactured by IBM's Information Products division out of its Lexington, Kentucky, headquarters.[6]
In 1985, IBM introduced the Actionwriter, a cost-reduced version of the Wheelwriter intended for home users, small businesses, and schools.[7] The Actionwriter was revamped in 1988, with IBM renaming it the Personal Wheelwriter.[8]
In 1991, the IBM Information Products Corporation was spun off into its own corporation, Lexmark International, who subsequently retained the tooling and manufacturing rights to the Wheelwriter series.[6] Wheelwriters continued to be marketed as IBM products and were distributed and resold by the latter, however.[3] By 1995, manufacturing of the Wheelwriter was relegated to one production line out of Lexmark's Lexington facility.[9] By the late 1990s, the Wheelwriter was one of the last electronic typewriters still manufactured in the United States, Lexmark holding a majority of the American market share in that category.[6]
Late entries in the line are capable of storing entire pages (for perfect duplication) and moving the printhead over predefined locations on a page (useful for batch filling out form fields).[10]: 20 Such late models include such models as the Wheelwriter 1000 and Wheelwriter 7000 (the former for classroom and home use and the latter for enterprise use).[11]
The Wheelwriter line was discontinued between the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002.[12]
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