French Lower Case

wç   é   -'e 12345678
bc   d    smdf gh90
æœ
zlmni opq;ffiken
yhrfi:em
xvutspacesar .,quadrats

This French lay is shown by Muller: Nouveau Manuel de Typographie (nd but c.1910) as one of the many models of bas de casse, this one being La Française. The companion Upper is French Upper. The Lower is very similar to Lockwood's 1894 version, except that it has ; in the Lower, and not Upper, case, and * in the Upper case, with w taking its Lower case box. Compared to Lefevre (1880), w has replaced * and ; has replaced 1½pt spaces and ffi has replaced w. Compared to Legros (1916), again w has replaced *, and ffi has replaced w.

Mids are espaces moyennes, hr (hair or thin) spaces are espaces fines, em spaces are cadratins, en spaces demi-cadratins, and quadrats are cadrats. Note that j is in the Upper, and é and ç in the Lower. The Lower lay is similar to Diderot (1751) except that the long s has been dropped, and the w moved from the Upper. Note also the location of the i box. Even as late as 1940, OUP also put i in the box where English/U.S. lays put h.

The empty configuration is the same as Diderot, and differs from English/US cases, eg the style of the ffi and k and — boxes, and the é and . and , boxes.

Other empty cases
ie with the boxes left blank
Other type layouts
ie with characters assigned to boxes
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This page was written in 1998 by David Bolton and last updated 29 August 2013.