Editing Letter case (section)

===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" />