compositor's case
Học thuậtThân thiện
A compositor carefully selects type from the lower case of his compositor's case.
Definition
- Noun:
- A type case: A compositor's case is a specialized tray or receptacle used in traditional typesetting. It is divided into many small compartments, each designed to hold a specific character, such as a particular letter, number, or piece of spacing material.
- A pair of cases: In English typesetting, a compositor typically uses two such cases together. The upper case holds the capital letters, and the lower case holds the small letters. This is the origin of the modern terms "uppercase" and "lowercase" for capital and small letters.
Usage Examples
- Noun:
- The apprentice learned the layout of every compartment in the compositor's case.
- Before digital printing, a typesetter would pick individual metal letters from a compositor's case to set each line of text.
Advanced Usage
- "Upper case" and "Lower case": These terms, derived directly from the physical compositor's case, are now standard linguistic terms. "Uppercase" refers to capital letters (A, B, C), and "lowercase" refers to small letters (a, b, c).
- Please write your name in uppercase letters on the form.
- The body text of a book is usually set in lowercase.
Variants and Related Words
- Type case (n): A more general term for a compositor's case.
- California Job Case (n): A specific, common layout for a compositor's case used in the United States, where characters are arranged for efficiency based on frequency of use.
- Compositor (n): The person who sets type, the user of the compositor's case.
- Typesetting (n): The process of arranging physical type, for which the compositor's case is an essential tool.
Synonyms
- Type tray: A less common synonym emphasizing the tray-like form of the case.
- Letter board: An informal term sometimes used.
Related Idioms
- "Mind your p's and q's": One popular theory about the origin of this idiom, meaning "to be careful and mindful of your behavior," relates to the compositor's case. In some case layouts, the lowercase 'p' and 'q' were in compartments next to each other and could be easily confused by an apprentice typesetter, leading to errors. A compositor had to be very careful to distinguish them.
- You're meeting the boss today, so mind your p's and q's.
A compositor carefully selects type from the lower case of his compositor's case.
Noun
- (printing) the receptacle in which a compositor has his type, which is divided into compartments for the different letters, spaces, or numbers
- for English, a compositor will ordinarily have two such cases, the upper case containing the capitals and the lower case containing the small letters