Ludlow Commercial Case

The cabinets that hold Ludlow cases have handedness: the right-handed ones are designed to stand to the right of the Ludlow Typograph (casting machine) and the left-handed ones to the left. The cases lie at an angle and the bottom of the case is on the lower edge, so the compositor stands with the case in front and the cabinet to his or her elbow.

Many shops have the cases set up so that the first half that is exposed as the case is pulled out of the cabinet holds the lower-case letters, although some shops that specialise in upper-case text (such as rubber stamp makers) might reverse this. The above illustration shows the typical lay of the case for a right-handed cabinet for a commercial printer.

The Ludlow is a slug casting machine which casts a slug (line) of type from a line of individual matrices that are set by hand. The setting of these matrices is somewhat similar to a compositor setting actual type by hand, and the Ludlow matrices are stored in a case, face down, in individual compartments for each character, in much the same way as type is stored in individual boxes within a case. The cases are stored at a sloping angle in the cabinet, and are pulled out sideways. Although not strictly a typecase, a lay of a Ludlow case is shown here for interest. It is derived from Parrish: Ludlow Troubleshooting Guide, and was kindly coded by David Macfarlane of Green Dolphin Press, who used this lay in 2002.