Must Be Art Weblog

Trivia of the day …
Did you know that the phrase “out of sorts” may be a printer’s term? After use, moveable type letters must be sorted into bins (capitals into the bins in the upper case, small letters into the bins in the lower case). If the printer’s apprentice hasn’t been keeping up with the task of sorting letters into bins, the master is likely to get cranky. He is out of sorts.

This dubious bit of trivia comes from The Complete Manual of Typography by James Felici, which I received as a Christmas present.