What is a DittoSheet?

A DittoSheet started as a worksheet copied on a spirit duplicator, the hand-cranked "ditto machine" found in most American school offices from the 1920s until photocopiers replaced it in the 1980s. The ink was purple, and fresh copies smelled faintly of alcohol when the teacher handed them out. If you were in school before about 1990, you probably took spelling tests on them. Today a DittoSheet is a worksheet made in DittoSheets from any text.

A modern DittoSheet: copywork made in DittoSheets

How a ditto machine worked

The teacher wrote or typed on a two-layer ditto master. The top sheet was ordinary paper. Behind it sat a sheet coated in waxy aniline dye, almost always purple, and every pen stroke or typewriter strike transferred a mirror image of that dye onto the back of the master.

The master was clipped to the drum of the spirit duplicator. As the drum turned, each blank page was moistened with a thin film of solvent, usually a methanol and isopropanol blend called duplicating fluid, and pressed against the master. The solvent dissolved a tiny amount of dye from the master onto the page. The "spirit" in spirit duplicator refers to that alcohol.

Every copy took a little dye with it, which is why a master was good for only forty to a hundred copies before the print went pale, and why the last row of the class got the faintest worksheet. Ditto Corporation of Chicago sold the most popular machines, and its brand name became the generic word, the way Xerox did for the machine that replaced it.

Why purple?
The aniline dye that transferred best and cost least was a purple-violet. Black, red, green and blue masters existed, but purple did the most copies per master, so purple is what everyone remembers.
Why the smell?
The duplicating fluid was mostly methanol, which evaporates fast and smells sweet. Fresh copies were still damp with it. Teachers were told to run the machine in a ventilated room; students mostly remember sniffing the paper.
Ditto vs. mimeograph
They were different machines. A mimeograph forced ink through a cut stencil and printed black copies by the thousand, with no smell. A ditto dissolved dye off a master, printed purple, and faded after about a hundred copies. Schools called both "the copier."

A short timeline

  • 1923: Wilhelm Ritzerfeld patents the spirit duplicator in Germany. Ditto Corporation brings it to American offices and schools.
  • 1930s to 1960s: the ditto is the school's copier. Worksheets, tests, permission slips and the class newsletter all come off the drum, purple.
  • 1970s: plain-paper photocopiers arrive but cost too much for most schools. The ditto machine holds on because a master costs pennies.
  • 1980s: photocopier prices fall, and the ditto machine goes to the storage closet. Most schools have retired theirs by about 1990.
  • Today: "ditto" survives as a word for any handout, and for the idea it always stood for: the same thing, again.

Why we called it DittoSheets

"Ditto" means the same, again. That is also how anything gets memorized: the same text, again, in a form that asks a little more each time. The original DittoSheet put the same page in front of every student. We kept the name and built a new tool around that idea.

A DittoSheet is a worksheet you generate from any text in about a minute: copywork to write it out, first letter hints to recall it, and memory lines to write it from memory. It prints as a PDF, as many copies as the class needs, and the last copy is as clear as the first.

The DittoSheets three-step method: Step 1 copywork, Step 2 first letter hints, Step 3 memory lines

The modern DittoSheet, in three steps

The Preamble to the Constitution, printed three ways.

Copywork
The Preamble to the Constitution as copywork on handwriting lines

The whole text, copied by hand.

First Letter Hints
The Preamble with each word reduced to its first letter and a blank

Each word is down to its first letter. The student supplies the rest from memory.

Memory Lines
The Preamble as memory lines: only punctuation and blanks sized to each word

Only punctuation remains. A student who can fill it in has the text memorized.

There is much more to DittoSheets than the three steps. The tour shows every sheet type, font, line style and teacher tool, and which plan includes each one.

Tour every feature

DittoSheet FAQ

A DittoSheet is a worksheet or handout copied on a spirit duplicator, nicknamed the ditto machine after the Ditto Corporation that sold them. Copies came out in purple ink and smelled of the alcohol-based duplicating fluid. Schools used them from the 1920s until photocopiers took over in the 1980s.

The master sheets were coated with an aniline dye, and the purple-violet dye transferred the most copies per master at the lowest cost. Other colors existed but purple was the standard.

The duplicating fluid that moistened each page was mostly methanol with some isopropanol. It evaporates quickly and has a sweet smell, and freshly run copies were still damp with it.

A mimeograph pushes ink through a cut stencil and prints black copies by the thousand with no odor. A spirit duplicator (ditto) dissolves dye off a master onto each page, prints purple, and a master lasts roughly 40 to 100 copies. People used both names loosely for whatever copier the school had.

Through the 1980s, as photocopier prices fell. Most American schools had retired their spirit duplicators by about 1990, though some ran into the mid-1990s.

In everyday speech, yes: "ditto" became a word for any school handout, the way "Xerox" became a word for a photocopy. Strictly, a ditto is a worksheet made on a spirit duplicator.

DittoSheets is a web tool that makes DittoSheets from any text. It is named for the old classroom ditto and for what "ditto" means: the same thing again. Its three-step method prints a text as copywork, then first-letter hints, then memory lines, so a student memorizes it by writing it. The Free plan prints 20 pages a month.

Make a DittoSheet of your own

Copywork Generator Memorization Worksheets Handwriting Worksheet Generator Spelling Worksheet Generator Fill-in-the-Blank Generator Free Printables

Make a DittoSheet from any text

Paste any text and print a copywork, first-letter and memory-line set in about a minute.

Make a DittoSheet — free Try Plus free for 7 days

Free: 20 pages a month, no card. Plus trial: card required, nothing charged for 7 days.