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TIL that "uppercase" and "lowercase" come from the actual cases where the types were stored. When I saw this picture https://cdn8.openculture.com/2025/09/232228
by rob74 1y ago
TIL that "uppercase" and "lowercase" come from the actual cases where the types were stored. When I saw this picture https://cdn8.openculture.com/2025/09/23222831/OC-Printing-Types-3.jpg https://cdn8.openculture.com/2025/09/23222831/OC-Printing-Ty... from the article, it all became clear. Even the numbers (for which you don't have to press "shift" on the keyboard either) were also stored in the lower case (which was obviously for the most often used types). Which then translated nicely to the typewriter: no shift for the more commonly used characters (lowercase), shift for the less common (uppercase).
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Terminology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Terminology
- dreamcompiler 1y agoYes. However in the US at least, the California job case was much more popular in the 20th century and it moved the capitals to the right of the "lower case" letters rather than above them. Nevertheless during the years when I was a typesetter we still called them "upper case" and never "right case". If you buy an old typecase at an antiques store in the US, 99% of the time it will be a California job case. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_job_case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_job_case