Modern California Job Case

ffi fl 5 to em 4 to em ' k e 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 $            
j b c d i s f g ff 9 A B C D E F G
? fi 0
H I K L M N O
! l m n h o y p w , en
qd
em
qd
z
P Q R S T V W
x v u t 3 to em
spaces
a r ; : quads
q . - X Y Z J U & ffl


This U.S. type lay is shown by Polk & Gage, A Composition Manual (1953), and was also in use at the Gypsy Press, U.S.A., in 1997. The top row of caps boxes is empty, apart from the $ box. The layout can be applied to any of the three styles of California case mentioned below, and can be regarded as a generic layout, with the only differences between authors being the top row of caps boxes. Some of these differences are:
Hermann Zapf print by Myriade Press, 1978:
 $ % °  / [ ]( )
Gaskell, The Lay of the Case, in Bowers, Studies in Bibliography, vol 22, 1969:
      AEOEaeoe
Polk, The Practice of Printing, 1964:
 $  –     [  ]  (  ) 
J.Ben Lieberman, Printing as a Hobby, 1963, and Willshire-Jacobs, Small Printer June 1988:
 $ @         ( )
Atkins, Art & Practice of Printing, 1932 and Hostettler, Technical Terms of the Printing Industry, 4th rev ed 1963:
    AEOEaeoe
Hamilton c.1932, and Kelsey, Printers Supply Book, 1969:
$@%ÆOEaeoe
Briar Press 2015
$@ # ÆOEaeoe
De Vinne, The Practice of Typography, Methods of Book Composition, 1904:
 $  £                    
Hamilton 1897, and ATF 1906, BB&S 1907, Henry 1917, Hague 1922, ATF 1923, Polk 1926, Kelsey 1930, Missouri-Central 1959:
(It is not clear what character is represented by the K- shown here.)
$£K-AEOEaeoe
Palmer & Rey 1892:
and they also had $ & instead of & ffl and 6m instead of fl and reversed ? and !.
 £ flffl      AEOE

Gaskell called the lay the Anglo-American Double, and gave Hostettler, The Printer's Terms (1949) as his source. He leaves the 5m and 4m boxes empty. Hostettler in 1963 actually calls the case English American, and includes the 5em and 4em. There is also, for example, a different English version shown by Whetton: Practical Printing & Binding (1946), and an Australian version of c1960.

The case shown above is in the style shown by e.g. Lieberman 1963 with ; : boxes the same size as x q, but there is an alternative style shown by e.g. Henry 1917 with the ; : boxes smaller than the . - boxes (although x box remains the same size as the q box). Both these styles have the caps bay with the top and bottom rows having smaller boxes than the middle rows. An earlier style, shown by e.g. Hamilton has just the top row smaller than the others.

Other empty cases
ie with the boxes left blank
Other type layouts
ie with characters assigned to boxes
Full Index of layoutsGlossary of terms usedSources of the layoutsIntroduction
Quantities in a fount of typeQuantities in a case of type
Notes about Job
and Double Cases
Notes about Upper casesNotes about Lower casesAlembic home page

Written in 1999 by David Bolton, after an original idea by JoAnn Rees, Otter Press. Last updated 8 June 2015.