中文打字机靠铅字敲击色带，将文本着印于纸上。最初的形式为一个约A2大小的盘面上，排满了铅字。常用字的排列次序缺省按照部首笔划排列，罕用字则有另外的字盘，实际使用时可根据需求自行排列。字盘内每个铅字均为倒置且反写，如此打出的字才会是正的。操作时，打字员首先要在铅字盘上找到所需铅字，手握打字机操作杆往下压，将一颗铅字钳住夹起，再按一键时，小钳就会举起铅字，隔着色带印在纸上。中文打字机的特色，在于打字机能够配合当时中国人书写习惯，允许文本打直排。当打完一行按回车键之后，又会自动卷回页眉，并跳往下一行。

A Chinese typewriter is a typewriter that can type Chinese script. Early European typewriters began appearing in the early 19th century. However, as the Chinese language uses a logographic writing system, fitting thousands of Chinese characters on the machine needed much more complex engineering than typewriters using a simple latin alphabet, or other non-logographic scripts. An ordinary Chinese printing office uses 6,000 Chinese characters. Chinese typewriters, and similar Japanese typewriters invented by Kyota Sugimoto, which use kanji adopted from the Chinese writing system, started to appear only in the early 20th century. There have been at least five dozen different versions of Chinese typewriters, ranging from sizable mechanical models to sophisticated electric word processors.