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'Swifts', 'fire eaters', 'gobblers' and 'whips' were accolades bestowed on fast hand compositors and keyboard operators of the past.

In recent years, I have heard little about the productivity from computer workstations, probably because the tasks performed by the operators are more variegated and extend beyond the capture of text alone. Arguably, the last great debate on the speeds achieved by keyboard operators came with the onset of computer composition.

It is interesting to thumb through my earliest copy of estimating for printers, dated 1951, which lists Monotype keyboarding at 5,000 to 6,000 uncorrected ens per hour.

In the 1983 edition of the same book, the anticipated speed for unjustified keyboarding is given at 12,000 ens per hour.

Typesetting speed contests were not uncommon in earlier times, especially in the US. In 1846, Robert Bonner was reported as setting 32,997 ems in 24 hours – 2,749 ens per hour for handsetting.

At the Second National Typesetting Tournament in Philadelphia during 1886,

Alexander Duguib set by hand 6,804 ems in three hours, equal to 4,536 ens per hour. Such speeds represent virtuosi feats.

Repetitive strain injury (RSI) is now an established clinical condition and recognised as a hazard of keyboard operating, but I do not recall earlier craftsmen complaining of the symptoms.

Lawrence Wallis held international pre-press marketing positions and was a respected author and print historian