This chapter looks at the physical and material dimensions of writing. It draws on examples of different writing technologies and techniques, the more recent mechanization of writing and its effects, from telegraphs to typewriters and word processors. In developing the idea of the display principle I use these examples to underline how writing always makes use of available materials to leave a durable and legible trace on a surface or graphic space. I call this the display principle. Because writing is both physical and material, the chapter concludes with a look at the physical demands that writing makes on the body.