Figure 4
A Pair of Printer’s Cases
Drawn by Rudolph Ruzicka
A case is a wooden try divided into various compartments or “boxes” of different areas but of a uniform depth of about an inch, and a printer’s font of type ordinarily requires two of these trays, one placed above the other on frames or sloping desks. The higher tray is called the upper case; the lower try is called the lower case; and it is from these trays and their position that the characters are described as upper-case and lower-case letters, a term which is merely descriptive of the relation of the cases to each other and to the composer.