If You Are Out of Sorts, Here's Some Helpful Trivia

Here is a bit of trivia from the days when printing presses used movable type as invented by our friend Gutenberg:

"The type case for any font contains multiples of each letter and numeral, with the largest sections reserved for the letters, or "sorts," that are used most frequently.  The expression "to be out of sorts" refers to the typesetter running out of a particular letter."

From Paperie: The Art of Writing and Wrapping with Paper, a fun coffee-table book from folks at Kate's Paperie with Bo Niles.  Even if the book does mention their business more than once, it's lavishly illustrated with pictures and artful photographs and exhaustively research by people whom I don't hesitate to call obsessed.  Page 68