For years, social media users have claimed that the terms "uppercase" and "lowercase" got their names becase capital letters were stored in the upper case of traditional printing presses while non-capitalized letters were stored in the lower case.
One Facebook post that shared the rumor in late February 2025 had amassed more than 28,000 shares and 79,000 reactions as of this writing. Text within the image read: "In traditional printing, capital letters were stored in an upper case above the small letters' lower case, leading to the terms 'uppercase' and 'lowercase.'"
However, examples of the claim appeared on the platform as early as 2010 and have repeatedly cropped up since.
In short, the terms date back to traditional typesetting methods in which a setter would handpick individual letters, place them in a tray and manually put print words onto paper. Therefore, the claim that uppercase and lowercase letters get their names from where they were stored in traditional printing trays is true.
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the term came from "the compositor's practice of keeping capital letters in the upper of a pair of type cases."
Print volunteer historian Howard Hatch, known as "Howard the Printer" at the Sacramento History Museum, explained the methodology in a video shared on Facebook. He said that the origin of the terms "goes back to when printing was first getting started," adding:
Back then, most of the work was essentially what we would call publishing, which would be newspapers, books, things of that nature. They had two different type cases and they were on a rack, and because you don't use a lot of capitals when you're setting type — just like when you're writing things out — the capitals were put farther away.
This arrangement allowed a printer to work more quickly by having easier access to the lower uncapitalized letters found in the lower part of the case.
According to Dictionary.com, the terms started circulating in the printing world in the 18th century — nearly 400 years after the printing press was invented in 1440:
The wooden cases where letters were stored for printing had different compartments by type. Lowercase and uppercase letters were stored in separate type cases, hence the names. Usually the letters used more frequently (the lowercase) were kept closer (or lower) on a compositor's ("person who sets the type or text for printing") desk.
In his book "Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique," American author Marc Drogin echoed this explanation, writing that upper and lowercase are modern terms that refer "to the shallow trays or 'cases,' in which printers stored the type, with separate compartments for each capital and small letter."
"The case of capital letters was always kept above that of the smaller ones—hence, uppercase and lower case," Drogin added.
A digitized archived version of the 1825 book "Typographia" described the process of setting type in a frame:
Before the compositor begins his operations the cases are "put up" on a stand, or "frame" constructed of sufficient length to hold two pair; namely, one pair of Roman and one pair of Italic. The arrangement of these frames in the Composing-room is always so ordered that the compositor may be as near to the window as possible, with the light coming from his left so that no shadow can be given by motion of his right hand to intercept the quick glance with which he must catch the position in which the next type he has to lift may be lying in its cell; for he must instantaneously view the nick and the head, as no time is allowed for hesitation, examination, or turning, after the first dart is made at the letter, but it is at once lodged upon his setting rule, and then finally secured and dropped into its place by the action of the left thumb alone, his eye being, at the same moment, turned to look for the next letter to be conveyed, in like manner to follow its predecessor.
[ … ]
The cases, it may be observed, rest upon the stand in a sloping position; the lower case at an inclination of about fifteen degrees, the upper at an elevation of about fifty-five; so that the compositor may reach the upper boxes with the greatest facility, and with as little danger as possible of putting his lower case in confusion, or pie, by the action of his arm when reaching over it.
The Henry Ford Museum explained the process in a video shared on YouTube on July 4, 2019.