Lanston Monotype UA/MCA Arrangements

The arrangements listed below are those shown in The Lanston Monotype Machine Co (Philadelphia)'s The Monotype System second edition 1916. They represent the basic 15x15 matrix case layouts before layouts began to be propduced for specific typefaces and customers. A large number of typefaces use these layouts (see for some examples Monotype Keybars), and although they are all for 15x15 cases, they do show the unit values attributed to the characters in the case. They are more strictly matrix case arrangements rather than unit arrangements. An alternative approach is to re-arrange the information, as shown at Unit Arrangement C which lists the unit values alphabetically, rather than by stopbar/wedge unit value.

In the U.K. the Monotype Corporation issued layout sheets showing keybar and keybutton designations, as well as case layout, and started much earlier to design layouts to match specific typefaces. Some of these are listed at Layouts. An equivalent re-arrangement of unit values is Unit Arrangement 1, again listing alphabetically. Both companies did provide Unit Arrangement sheets on demand, for the casting of sorts, and thus listing by unit value, all the characters, and their set widths for the different point sizes.

Some of the layouts shown here will have their quality of reproduction improved in due course, but at the moment there should be sufficient detail to show the unit values for each row of the matrix case. If the typeface is known, then using U.S. Faces will link directly to the appropriate layout below.

This page was written by David Bolton in November 2013 and last updated 28 November 2013.