Empty Upper Case

This typecase configuration matches that of Moxon: Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (1683), Fertel: La Science Practique de l'Imprimerie (1723), Diderot: Encyclopedia (c1751), Smith: The Printers' Grammar (1755), Luckombe: The History and Art of Printing (1771), Stower: Printer's Grammar (1808), van Winkle: The Printers' Guide (1818), Johnson: Typographia (1824), Hansard: Typographia (1825), Timperley: The Printers' Manual (1838), Savage: A Dictionary of the Art of Printing (1841), Adams: Typographia (1844 and 1854), Tomlinson: Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts (1853), Mackellar: American Printer (1866), Harpel: Typograph or Book of Specimens (1870), Ringwalt: American Encyclopaedia of Printing (1871), Miller & Richard: Price List (1873), Plantin-Moretus Museum (c1876 and still in 1998), Curtis & Mitchell: Price List (1878 and 1886), Lefevre: Guide Practique du Compositeur d'Imprimerie (1880), Southward: Practical Printing (1882 to 1900), Oldfield: Practical Manual of Typography (1892 and rev ed. 1898), Palmer & Rey: Type Specimen (1892), Barnhart Bros & Spindler: Pony Specimen (1893), American Type Founders: Specimen of Wood Type and Catalogue of Printers Wood Goods and Materials (1893), Lockwood: American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmaking (1894), American Type Founders: Blue Book (1895), Miller & Richard: Catalogue of Printing Material (1897), Caslon: Specimen of Printing Types (1897), Southward: Modern Printing (1898 to 1954), De Vinne: Practice of Typography (1904 and 1914), American Type Founders: American Line Type Book (1906), Barnhardt Bros & Spindler: Book of Type Specimens No.9 (1907), Figgins: Layout Sheets (c1907) (for Arabic), Jacobi: Printing (5th ed. 1913 and 6th ed. 1919), Legros & Grant: Typographical Printing-Surfaces (1916), Stephenson Blake & Co: Printing Material & Machinery (1922), American Type Founders: Specimen (1923) (Greek only), Caslon: Printing Types & Material (1925), Aspinall: Handicraft Printing (1936), Updike: Printing Types (1937), Tarr: Printing Today (1945), Hostettler: Technical Terms of the Printing Industry (1949 and 4th rev ed 1963), Cefmor: Printers Equipment & Sundries (1955), Wallis: A Short History of the English Case Lay in Print in Britain (1959), Western Australia Education Department: Course for Composing Apprentices (c1960), Harrild: Catalogue (1970), Lindley & Maggs: Letterpress for the Beginner (1970 and rev ed 1983), Horsfall: Startype (1978), Stephenson Blake: Price List (1989), Sind National Type Foundry: Book of Type Faces (c1999) and was in use for example by Oxford University Press (1934), Heffer (1970) and the Alembic Press from 1974 to 2009. It is very much the standard Upper case, often also used for non-Latin languages. The Scotch Upper case is the same configuration, but is partitioned into four bays, rather than two.

Moxon's lay is Upper Case, and his companion Lower is Moxon.

The pattern of Upper shown here continued up until the present day, but three main variations which also developed were the addition of extra small boxes (eg French, Belgian, Dutch, Greek, etc.) all to accommodate accents, etc., the enlargement of boxes on one side (eg Improved Upper) to make more room for capitals, and in the U.S.A. the enlargement of the middle three rows (eg News Cap) again to make more room for capitals. The case dimensions have changed slightly over the years, from Moxon's 2ft 9in x 1ft 4½in x 1¼in to sizes depending upon the country and manufacturer, but for example, Stephenson Blake English Uppers in 1989 were not very different, at 2ft 8½in x 1ft 2½in x 1¾in.

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 11 April 2009.