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, Encyclopédie c.1751, Smith, The Printers' Grammar 1755, Luckombe, The History and Art of Printing 1771, Stower, The 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, The American Printer 1866, Harpel, Typograph or Book of Specimens 1870, Ringwalt, American Encyclopaedia of Printing 1871, Miller & Richard, Price List 1873, Plantin-Moretus Museum c.1876 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, the Encyclopaedia Britannica 9th ed 1888 and 11th ed 1911, 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, Miller & Richard, Specimens of Book Newspaper Jobbing and Ornamental Types 1894, American Type Founders, Blue Book 1895, Miller & Richard, Catalogue and Price List of Printing Material 1897, Caslon, Specimen of Printing Types 1897, Southward, Modern Printing 1898 to 1954, Ullmer, Revised Illustrated Price List of New Machinery and Materials 1902, 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, Hamilton Manufacturing Company, Modern Cabinets, Furniture and Materials for Printers, Catalog 14 c.1907, Figgins Layout Sheets c.1907 (for Arabic), Miller & Richard, Printing Machinery and Material 1910, Miller & Richard, Specimens of Modern, Old Style and Ornamental Type cast on Point Bodies 1912, 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, Miller & Richard, Printing Type Specimens 1927, 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 c.1960, Harrild, Catalogue 1970, Lindley & Maggs, Letterpress for the Beginner 1970 and rev ed 1983, Horsfall & Sons, Startype 1978, Stephenson Blake, Price List 1989, Sind National Type Foundry, Book of Type Faces c.1999, and was in use for example by Oxford University Press in 1934, Heffer in 1970 and the Alembic Press from 1974 to 2015. 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. A more recent U.S. lay is ATF 1906 and Hamilton 1907, and a UK one Southward 1898 and Tarr 1945.

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 3 January 2016.