A California Job Case is a kind of type case: a compartmentalized wooden box used to store movable type used in letterpress printing. It was the most popular and accepted of the job case designs in America. The California Job Case took its name from the Pacific coast location of the foundries that made the case popular.
The defining characteristic of the California Job case is the layout, documented by Ringwalt as used by San Francisco printers. This modification of the Italic layout was claimed to reduce the compositor's hand travel by more than half a mile per day. Traditionally, upper and lower case type were each kept in a separate case (or tray); this is why capital letters are called "upper case" characters while the non-capitals are "lower case". As printers became more mobile, a combined case became preferred as it was easier to transport. The combined case became very popular during the western expansion of the United States in the 19th century.
Read more about California Job Case: Layout
Famous quotes containing the words california, job and/or case:
“The Indian remarked as before, “Must have hard wood to cook moose-meat,” as if that were a maxim, and proceeded to get it. My companion cooked some in California fashion, winding a long string of the meat round a stick and slowly turning it in his hand before the fire. It was very good. But the Indian, not approving of the mode, or because he was not allowed to cook it his own way, would not taste it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... we’re not out to benefit society, to remold existence, to make industry safe for anyone except ourselves, to give any small peoples except ourselves their rights. We’re not out for submerged tenths, we’re not going to suffer over how the other half lives. We’re out for Mary’s job and Luella’s art, and Barbara’s independence and the rest of our individual careers and desires.”
—Anne O’Hagan (1869–?)
“I love to weigh, to settle, to gravitate toward that which most strongly and rightfully attracts me;Mnot hang by the beam of the scale and try to weigh less,—not suppose a case, but take the case that is; to travel the only path I can, and that on which no power can resist me. It affords me no satisfaction to commence to spring an arch before I have got a solid foundation.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)