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Arguably Caps letters are more visually distinct. From a distance lower case "e", "a", "o" can be a lot more difficult to tell apart then "E", "A" and "O". Not
by SeanDav 10y ago
Arguably Caps letters are more visually distinct. From a distance lower case "e", "a", "o" can be a lot more difficult to tell apart then "E", "A" and "O". Not to mention of course the classic problem of mix case "I", "l", "1"
Of course, depending on font we have issues with all caps as well, especially when mixed with numbers: "Z" and "2", "O" and "0", "Q" and "O" etc.
Typography is not an easy subject.
- hammock 10y ago>Arguably Caps letters are more visually distinct I would say this is true and for one line or two lines only. For blocks of text, readability is improved by a mixture of upper and lowercase.
- basseq 10y agoPrecisely this. Because "readability" isn't "what is this letter": humans interpolate based on context. It doesn't matter whether it's: The Quick Brown Dog Jumped Over The Lazy Fox -or- Tha Quiek Brawn Deg Junped Ovar The Lasy Pox ... if you're expecting a certain phase, your brain can error-correct quite well. Obviously this might not work where letters are important (say a 24-character software license key), but where words or prose is concerned, what matters is the whole.
- taeric 10y agoHow much of this is just a learned behavior? As an example, it is dead easy to spot common speed limit signs, mainly because there are so few speed limits. Even when my sight was failing, I could make out the speed limits at a distance with little trouble. Not because of some magic of the text, but simply from familiarity. So, in an age where most of what we read is mixed case, it makes intuitive sense that we would be better at reading it. I fully realize intuitive sense doesn't translate to an explanation and is why I'm asking the question.
- michaelbuddy 10y agoYeah thing is, with readability, you also have to consider expectation, as in you're reading efficiency includes the ability to expect what's coming too. I'm not sure all caps improves that or could hinder it. But one way that I'm thinking is this, how the jumbled inner letters can still be read. I'd be interested in a test with people and this using all caps vs normal sentence case. http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/ http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/