Optima Elite 3 is a portable typewriter that was produced at VEB Optima factory in the city of Erfurt in DDR. That was the third iteration of the Elite model after the Erfurt typewriter factory was renamed to Optima and the last iteration of that model to be produced at the factory.

Elite 3 was fitted with all the functionality that the Olympia Elite model typewriter had when it was produced in the pre-war Germany. The typewriter has a keyset tabulator that allowed for creation of sheets, something like the MS Excel of today- by pressing on the TAB key the carriage would automatically moved the the preset tabulation postition and the user could repeat the same principle for as many tab stops as the carriage had symbols. It was also possible to use the bi-colored ribbon.

Optima Elite 3 is a typewriter model with a distinct aerodynamic shape of the outer shell that, along with the great amount of chromed parts, was something really up-to-date with the design trends at the time. The model had a variety of color choices available for the buyer- the one known to us are black, beige, light-green glossy pains and so-called “fish-gray” (Optima’s own name) metallic paint. Keys, however, could’ve been black, dark-green and brown, depending on the chosen shell color.