Re: Case sensitivity (was Re: no title)

["Robert I. Eachus" <rieachus@attbi.com>]

Randy Brukardt wrote:

> My Dad had a small printing press when he was young, which I sent up in
> my parents basement and used some in my teenage years. It had a number
> of type fonts as well. It still exists - in my parents basement.

Well if you ever want to get rid of it in exchange for a tax deduction, 
now you know how.

> In any case (pun intended), the standard type drawer layout had the
> upper case in small bins on the left, and lower case in larger bins (of
> different sizes, with 'e' being the largest) on the right. (Or is it the
> other way around?) But that layout may be a relatively recent invention
> (early 19th century?).

No, that it the right way around for triple-width cases.  Lower case e 
was the largest bin, just to the right of the right full divider.  (Type 
was made of a lead alloy and was heavy, so the type cases need dividers 
from the front to the back of the drawer so they didn't sag in the middle.)

We had several type cases with around 24 double with drawers, they 
usually had lower case and small caps in one drawer, and lower case in 
another, with racks on top to support two drawers.  With around a dozen 
different type cases we could and did pull out all of the drawers we 
needed for a job, put them on top of various cases, grab a compositor's 
stick and start setting type.  I couldn't set type as fast as I can 
type, but even a full page of text only took a couple hours. (And if it 
had some mathematical formulas in it that was a nice break, when you 
went looking for the right Greek font, then had to remember the Greek 
alphabet to know where to look for say a rho.