Modern Printing Old Upper Case

  A    B    C    D    E    F    G   ABCDEFG
HIKLMNO HIKLMNO
PQRSTVW PQRSTVW
XYZAEOEUJ XYZAEOEUJ
1234567 âêîôû§¦¦
890£/------ áéíóú||¦
äëïöüçk    à     è     ì     ò     ù    ¶     *  

This English layout is that shown by Southward: Modern Printing (1898, and still in 1954 8th edition, by then actually edited by Whetton). It is given as having been in use for many years in bookwork offices. It is shown by Jacobi: Printing (5th edition 1913 and 6th 1919) as the one in use for general book work, the lay being identical apart from Jacobi putting braces in the box between 7 and k, whereas Southward shows a second box for em rule. It is very different to the Old Upper shown by Southward in Practical Printing, 1887, but is close to the Upper case shown by Luckombe, 1771, and to the Bookwork Upper shown by Southward in 1882 and earlier by Timperley in 1838, except they include fractions and have the figures a row higher. Note that the capitals are still in the top rows in the case (unlike in Southward's 1887 version). The only difference to Luckombe is that Southward has moved ç and dropped the long s characters, adding £ and / and em rules instead.

Note that the boxes with A,B, etc are small caps. The ¦ box represents a single dagger, and ¦¦ a double dagger, and --- is 2 em rule (the em dash (rule) being in the Lower case). The companion lower is the Old Lower. The empty case configuration is that of Moxon (1683), and Smith (1755), Johnson (1824), Southward (1882), Mackellar (1885), Barnhart Bros & Spindler's News (1890s), Stephenson Blake & Co (1922), Miller & Richard (1920s), Caslon (1925) etc.

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

This page was written in 1997 by David Bolton and last updated 9 March 2006.