Type case


A type case is a compartmentalized wooden box used to store movable type used in letterpress printing.
Modern, factory-produced movable type was available in the late nineteenth century. It was held in the printing shop in a job case, a drawer about 2 inches high, three feet wide, and about two feet deep, with many small compartments for the "sorts". The most popular and commonly used job case design in America was the California Job Case, which took its name from the Pacific Coast location of the foundries that made the case popular. These cases allowed type to be compactly transported.
Traditionally, the capital letters were stored in a separate drawer, or case, placed above the case holding the other letters.
There were a great variety of cases, and also variations in the "lay", or the assignment of the sorts into the compartments. Different printers had different house layouts even for the same design of case.