Empty English Lower Case

                                                                                                 
            
   
             
 
           
   

This English typecase configuration is the New Lower Case of Johnson, Typographia 1824 and the Present Lower of Hansard, Typographia 1825, the Old and the New Lower of Timperley, The Printers' Manual 1838 and the English Lower of Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts 1853. It is the Lower of Miller & Richard, Price List 1873, Southward, Practical Printing 1882 to 1900, the Encyclopaedia Britannica 9th ed 1888 and 11th ed 1911, Oldfield, Practical Manual of Typography 1892 and 1898, Miller & Richard Specimens of Book Newspaper Jobbing and Ornamental Types 1894 and Catalogue & Price List of Printing Material 1897, Caslon, Specimen of Printing Types 1897, Southward, Modern Printing 1898 and still in 8th ed 1954, and Ullmer, Revised Price List of New Machinery and Materials 1902, and Miller & Richard, Printing Machinery & Material c.1910, and Specimens of Modern, Old Style and Ornamental Type cast on Point Bodies 1912, and the Book Lower of Jacobi, Printing 5th ed 1913 and 6th ed 1919. and is in the text of Legros & Grant, Typographical Printing-Surfaces 1916. It is the Lower of Stephenson, Blake & Co, Printing Material & Machinery 1922, and the old Standard Lower Case of Caslon, Printing Types & Materials 1925. It is the Lower of Miller & Richard, Printing Type Specimens 1927 and Aspinall Handicraft Printing 1936, Tarr, Printing Today 1945, Cefmor, Printers Equipment & Sundries 1955, Wallis, A Short History of the English Case Lay in Print in Britain Nov 1959, Horsfall & Sons Startype 1978 and the News Lower of American Printing Equipment & Supply Co, Catalog 1983 and 1987. It is used, for example, by Western Australia Education Department in c.1960, Heffer in c.1970, Alembic Press from 1974 to 2015, etc.

Effectively, it is the same case as shown by Smith in 1755, but with the s and long s boxes merged into one, the long s character having fallen into disuse. It is the standard English lower case, and remains in use to this day. Note the 8th box from left in the top row is wide, unlike the US Lower, where it is divided into two. For one of the many normal layouts for the type see the London lay. The companion Upper case remains the pattern used by Moxon.

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 1997 by David Bolton and last updated 30 April 2015.