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Although the first typecases were single large cases, which held the whole fount of characters, these soon became divided into two separate upper and lower cases, in the non Germanic countries. This allowed the accents, small capitals, etc to be stored conveniently in the cases, as well as making the individual cases lighter to handle, since they were smaller in size. |
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However, newspaper and jobbing (ie not book) work did not require the full range of accents, fractions, etc., and a case was developed that combined a lower case, and half an upper case, to make the double, or job, case. Confusingly, it was also sometimes referred to as a half case, but this term is more correctly used to describe a half-size case. The double case is physically the same size as a standard upper or lower case, although the overall size of the Double and Job cases is slightly different between England and Scotland and U.S.A., and there is a significant difference in the central lower case bay in the box above the i box. English cases have one single box here, for spacing, whilst U.S. cases have a divided box, for the start of the numerals, as shown in the case below. (Scottish cases have the divided box above the i box, but the box layout for most of the minor characters is different.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For further information on the different configuration of cases, choose either U.S. Job or English Double, or Scottish Double. Or choose a comparison of just the three styles of California Job case. For a summary of the different contents of the boxes, choose English Double or Variations in Double Lays. |
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Empty cases ie with the boxes left blank | Type layouts ie with characters assigned to boxes | ||
Full Index of layouts | Glossary of terms used | Sources of the layouts | Introduction |
Quantities in a Fount of type | Quantities in a Case of type | ||
This page | Notes about Upper cases | Notes about Lower cases | Alembic home page |