Lowercase

To write faster than they could when writing only capital letters (uppercase), sixth-century scribes simplified capital letter forms and developed "miniscule" letters. This was the origin of lowercase letters, which now comprise most of our typographic communications. They got the name lowercase from the standard location in which typesetters stored these letters ? in large thin drawers known as cases, the lower ones rather than the upper ones. The lowercase letters shown here are more contemporary designs.