Is it Time to Stop Using ALL CAPS?
Uppercase Letters Take Up More Space
The proverbial "Now is the time for all good..." typist's sentence is nearly 40% longer when printed in all caps. Using sentence case can recapture this extra space so you can use it to your advantage in software applications. This is particularly true in applications that utilize grids. Imagine how much more data could fit on the screen at one time if the text wasn't in uppercase? Some of our clients have a hard time seeing the entire matter caption on the screen because text is in all caps.
Do you use all uppercase for your bill printing? We did our own testing here. The aforementioned "typist's sentence" repeated five times on a bill required 13 lines to print when in all caps. Switching it to sentence case shortened it to just 9 lines. If you make the switch from uppercase to sentence case, you will see faster printing, reduced printing and postage costs, not to mention saving trees.
Some Say it's Rude!
Society has changed in the last ten years. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who has not used e-mail or surfed to a web page. As such, electronic communication has developed its own etiquette. Using all caps has become the written equivalent of shouting or being aggressive (see
http://www.biztechonline.com/net_ettiquette.htm). Enter a chat room or post a message in a discussion group in all caps and you will be inundated with comments like "stop shouting" and "newbie". Your use of all caps, besides being rude, could give you the appearance of being less than savvy in the technology world.
It's Hard to Read
From a practical standpoint, text in all caps is much harder to read because it eliminates all ascenders and descenders from words (those are the long lines in letters like “p,” “d,” or “h”). People tend to read entire words, not the individual letters. The ascenders and descenders help us recognize words. See the paragraphs below as proof.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
AOCCDRNIG TO A RSCHEEARCH AT CMABRIGDE UINERVTISY, IT DEOSN'T MTTAER IN WAHT OREDR THE LTTEERS IN A WROD ARE, THE OLNY IPRMOETNT TIHNG IS TAHT THE FRIST AND LSAT LTTEER BE AT THE RGHIT PCLAE. THE RSET CAN BE A TOTAL MSES AND YOU CAN SITLL RAED IT WOUTHIT PORBELM. TIHS IS BCUSEAE THE HUAMN MNID DEOS NOT RAED ERVEY LTETER BY ISTLEF, BUT THE WROD AS A WLOHE.
Did you find that the all caps version was more difficult to read even though you knew what to expect? Did you notice the all caps version takes up two more printed lines, as well? If you’re not convinced, do a little survey with your officemates, then do your clients a favor and make their bills easier to read!
