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When
Is It Okay to Use All Caps?
by
Tim Donnelly, guest writer
N
oone likes to be yelled at in person, on the phone or in print.
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to stop some people from doing it on
their web pages, in their e-mails and in their brochures. I am referring
to the overuse of ALL CAPS which amounts to someone screaming at you in
print.
Why?
When most people used a typewriter as a writing tool, it was common
to use all caps as a means of heavy emphasis. If you wanted a word or passage
to be seen, you used ALL CAPS. Thankfully, today we have a better method. Today,
we have bold fonts.
The coastline
Study after study
has shown that it is much more difficult to read text typed in all capital letters
than upper and lowercase letters. We read words by their letters but also by the
shapes of those letters in patterns. These shapes are called the "coastline"
which refers to the ups and downs of the descenders and ascenders of the letters.
When words are written in all caps, there are no ups and downs. All the shapes
and heights of the letters are exactly the same. When words are written in all
caps, our eyes have to read the words letter by letter which really slows us down.
Read this paragraph in all caps to see how much longer it takes.
STUDY AFTER STUDY HAS SHOWN THAT IT IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO READ TEXT IN
ALL CAPS THAN IT IS IN UPPER AND LOWERCASE LETTERS. WE LOOK AT AND READ
WORDS BY THEIR LETTERS BUT ALSO BY THE SHAPES
OF THOSE LETTERS IN PATTERNS. THESE SHAPES ARE CALLED THE "COASTLINE"
AND REFERS TO THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE DESCENDERS AND ASCENDERS OF THE
LETTERS. WHEN WORDS ARE WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS, THERE ARE NO UPS AND DOWNS.
ALL THE SHAPES AND HEIGHTS OF THE LETTERS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME. WHEN WORDS
ARE WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS, WE HAVE TO READ THE WORDS LETTER BY LETTER WHICH
REALLY SLOWS US DOWN. READ THIS PARAGRAPH IN ALL CAPS TO SEE HOW MUCH
LONGER IT TAKES.
How did it go?
Probably not too easy if you could get through it at all. I had a
hard time just typing it. Yuck.
Real world
If you're preparing copy that you or someone else will import
into a page-layout program and you want to emphasize some words, don't
use all-caps. Whomever is doing the design will probably need to retype
it to convert it to upper and lowercase letters. It's time-consuming and
it leaves more chance for errors. Rather than using all caps, bold the
letters to save time and potential typos. 
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