'Southward' Improved Upper Case

â ä

ê ë

î ï

ô ö

1
4

1
2

per

----

{ {

fist

à á

è é

ì í

ò ó

ù ú

3
4

1 7
8 8

¦¦

' °

3 5
8 8

2
3

This English layout is given by Southward: Practical Printing (3rd ed 1887) as the best for both book and news work. He earlier showed the lay in the Printers Register of 1880 and 1884. He continued to show the lay in Practical Printing, but by the 5th edition of 1900, the ' and ° had moved to share the $ box, and a 3dot leader had taken their box. The equivalent lower is Improved Lower, which holds the ligatures.

The types most in demand are nearest the compositor's hand, and the small caps and sorts, being least used, are moved to the left, so as to be underneath the 'copy'. For comparison, see Southward's Old lay. Other versions had moved the caps down, eg Mackie's, but Southward also put the X Y Z row above the A B C row, since X etc., was less frequently used. Similarly, the figures rows are lower down than in Mackie's version.

The boxes with A, etc are small caps. The box ¦ is really a single, and ¦¦ a double, dagger. The ---- are em rules.

The empty case configuration is the traditional Upper of Moxon (1683), Smith (1755), Johnson (1824), Mackellar (1885), Southward (1882), Barnhart Bros & Spindler's News (1890s), Miller & Richard (1897), Stephenson Blake & Co (1922), Caslon (1925) etc.

Other empty cases ie with the boxes left blank		Other 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
Notes about Job and Double Cases	Notes about Upper cases	Notes about Lower cases	Alembic home page

This page was written in 1997 by David Bolton and last updated 9 March 2006.