Editing Letter case (section)

==History==
{{See also|Initial}}
{{Multiple image
| direction = vertical
| width = 250
| image1 = Arch.of.Titus-Inscription.jpg
| caption1 = Latin majuscule inscription on the [[Arch of Titus]] (82 CE)
| image2 = I littera in manuscripto.jpg
| caption2 = Papyrus fragment with old Roman cursive script from the reign of [[Claudius]] (41–54 CE)
| image3 = Codex Ebnerianus Prolog J 1, 5b-10.JPG
| caption3 = Example of Greek minuscule text [[Codex Ebnerianus]] ({{circa}} 1100 CE)
}}
{{Multiple image
| direction = vertical
| width = 250
| image1 = A Typesetters Sorting Case.jpg
| caption1 = Combined case with capital letters above small letters
| image2 = 2 job cases.jpg
| caption2 = Late 19th-century mixed cases
| image3 = PrintMus 026.jpg
| caption3 = Demonstrating the use of a [[composing stick]] in front of divided upper and lower type cases at the [[International Printing Museum]] in Carson, California, United States, North America
}}
Originally [[alphabet]]s were written entirely in majuscule letters, spaced between well-defined upper and lower bounds. When written quickly with a [[pen]], these tended to turn into rounder and much simpler forms. It is from these that the first minuscule hands developed, the [[half-uncial]]s and cursive minuscule, which no longer stayed bound between a pair of lines.<ref name="Harris 2003" /> These in turn formed the foundations for the [[Carolingian minuscule]] script, developed by [[Alcuin]] for use in the court of [[Charlemagne]], which quickly spread across Europe. The advantage of the minuscule over majuscule was improved, faster readability.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

In [[Latin]], [[Papyrus|papyri]] from [[Herculaneum]] dating before 79 CE (when it was destroyed) have been found that have been written in old [[Roman cursive]], where the early forms of minuscule letters "d", "h" and "r", for example, can already be recognised. According to papyrologist [[Knut Kleve]], "The theory, then, that the lower-case letters have been developed from the fifth century [[uncial]]s and the ninth century Carolingian minuscules seems to be wrong."<ref name="Kleve 1994" /> Both majuscule and minuscule letters existed, but the difference between the two variants was initially stylistic rather than orthographic and the writing system was still basically unicameral: a given handwritten document could use either one style or the other but these were not mixed. European languages, except for [[Ancient Greek]] and Latin, did not make the case distinction before about 1300.{{citation needed|date=February 2014}}

The timeline of writing in Western Europe can be divided into four eras:{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}
*Greek majuscule (9th–3rd&nbsp;century BCE) in contrast to the Greek [[uncial script]] (3rd century BCE&nbsp;– 12th&nbsp;century CE) and the later [[Greek minuscule]]
*[[Roman square capitals|Roman majuscule]] (7th&nbsp;century BCE&nbsp;– 4th&nbsp;century CE) in contrast to the Roman uncial (4th–8th&nbsp;century CE), [[Roman half uncial]], and minuscule
*[[Carolingian]] majuscule (4th–8th&nbsp;century CE) in contrast to the [[Carolingian minuscule]] (around 780&nbsp;– 12th&nbsp;century)
*[[Blackletter|Gothic]] majuscule (13th and 14th&nbsp;century), in contrast to the early Gothic (end of 11th to 13th&nbsp;century), Gothic (14th&nbsp;century), and late Gothic (16t&nbsp; century) minuscules.

Traditionally, certain letters were rendered differently according to a set of rules. In particular, those letters that began sentences or nouns were made larger and often written in a distinct script. There was no fixed capitalisation system until the early 18th century. The [[English language]] eventually dropped the rule for nouns, while the German language keeps it.

Similar developments have taken place in other alphabets. The lower-case script for the [[Greek alphabet]] has its origins in the 7th century and acquired its quadrilinear form (that is, characterised by ascenders and descenders)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gilbertredman.com/medievalmanuscripts/paleography/roman-writing-systems/|title=Roman Writing Systems – Medieval Manuscripts|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-03}}</ref> in the 8th century. Over time, uncial letter forms were increasingly mixed into the script. The earliest dated Greek lower-case text is the [[Uspenski Gospels]] (MS 461) in the year 835.<ref>The earliest known biblical manuscript is a palimpsest of Isajah in Syriac, written in 459/460. [[Bruce M. Metzger]] & [[Bart D. Ehrman]], ''The Text of the New Testament'' ([[Oxford University Press]]: 2005), p. 92.</ref> The modern practice of capitalising the first letter of every sentence seems to be imported (and is rarely used when printing Ancient Greek materials even today).{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

[[File:Evolution of minuscule.svg|thumb|center|700px
|Simplified relationship between various scripts leading to the development of modern lower case of standard Latin alphabet and that of the modern variants [[Fraktur (script)|Fraktur]] (used in Germany [[Antiqua–Fraktur dispute|until 1940s]]) and [[Gaelic type|Gaelic]] (used in Ireland). Several scripts coexisted such as [[half-uncial]] and [[uncial]], which derive from [[Roman cursive]] and [[Greek uncial]], and [[Visigothic script|Visigothic]], [[Merovingian script|Merovingian (Luxeuil variant here)]] and [[Beneventan script|Beneventan]]. The [[Carolingian script]] was the basis for [[blackletter]] and [[humanist minuscule]]. What is commonly called "Gothic writing" is technically called blackletter (here [[Textualis|textualis quadrata]]) and is completely unrelated to Visigothic script.

The letter j is i with a [[Swash (typography)|flourish]], u and v are the same letter in early scripts and were used depending on their position in insular half-uncial and caroline minuscule and later scripts, w is a ligature of vv, in insular the [[rune]] [[wynn]] is used as a w (three other runes in use were the [[Thorn (letter)|thorn]] (þ), ʻféʼ (ᚠ) as an abbreviation for cattle/goods and maðr (ᛘ) for man).

The letters y and z were very rarely used, in particular þ was written identically to y so y was dotted to avoid confusion, the dot was adopted for i only after late-caroline (protogothic), in beneventan script the [[Scribal abbreviation|macron abbreviation]] featured a dot above.

Lost variants such as [[r rotunda]], ligatures and [[Scribal abbreviation|scribal abbreviation marks]] are omitted; [[long s]] is shown when no terminal s (the only variant used today) is preserved from a given script.

[[Humanist sans-serif|Humanist script]] was the basis for Venetian [[Typeface|types]] which changed little until today, such as [[Times Roman|Times New Roman]] ([[Serif|a serifed typeface]]).
]]

===Type cases===
The individual type blocks used in hand [[typesetting]] are stored in shallow wooden or metal drawers known as "[[type case]]s". Each is subdivided into a number of compartments ("boxes") for the storage of different individual letters.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

The ''Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Advanced Proportional Principles'' (reprinted 1952) indicates that ''case'' in this sense (referring to the box or frame used by a compositor in the printing trade) was first used in English in 1588. Originally one large case was used for each typeface, then "divided cases", pairs of cases for majuscules and minuscules, were introduced in the region of today's Belgium by 1563, England by 1588, and France before 1723.

The terms ''upper'' and ''lower'' case originate from this division. By convention, when the two cases were taken out of the storage rack and placed on a rack on the [[Compositor (typesetting)|compositor]]'s desk, the case containing the capitals and small capitals stood at a steeper angle at the back of the desk, with the case for the small letters, punctuation, and spaces being more easily reached at a shallower angle below it to the front of the desk, hence upper and lower case.<ref name="Bolton 1997" />

Though pairs of cases were used in English-speaking countries and many European countries in the seventeenth century, in Germany and Scandinavia the single case continued in use.<ref name="Bolton 1997" />

Various patterns of cases are available, often with the compartments for lower-case letters varying in size according to the frequency of use of letters, so that the commonest letters are grouped together in larger boxes at the centre of the case.<ref name="Bolton 1997" /> The compositor takes the letter blocks from the compartments and places them in a [[composing stick]], working from left to right and placing the letters upside down with the nick to the top, then sets the assembled type in a [[Galley proof|galley]].<ref name="Bolton 1997" />