Pickering's Improved Double Case

[ ]aeoe( ) j     e       mids
thins  
 ' ?!; fl 1234567
890£Qu  
&bcdisfg ff
ABCDEFG
ffikfi
HIKLMNO
ffllmnhoyp,wenem
hr
PQRSTVW
zvutthicks arq:quads
XYZAEOEUJ
x.-

This English layout is shown by Pickering, Compositors' Equipment, Pitman 1946 reprinted 1955, as the improved double case for jobbing founts of type. One basic improvement on earlier double cases (e.g. the London School of Printing shown by Atkins Art and Practice of Printing c.1930, is that the upper case section has only six rows, with the two top rows being smaller, and the four bottom rows larger, to accommodate more capitals than figures, etc.

The lay is, for example, similar to that shown by Caslon in 1897, apart from Caslon swapping ffi and hair, and including three dot leaders, / and $, and excluding Qu. It is the same as that of Heffer, c.1970, apart from Heffer separating mids and thins, and excluding Qu, and also the Southern College of Art, c.1970, again separating mids and thins, but excluding hairs, and including ct st QU and an en dash. A layout at St Bride Foundation in 2015, is the same as Pickering apart from replacing hairs with thins, and including $ and /.

The empty typecase configuration matches, for example, the Improved Double of Caslon 1897, et al., as opposed to the umimproved Double of Southward 1882, et al.

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
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and Double Cases
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This page was written in 2016 by David Bolton and last updated 18 May 2016.