View source for All caps

{{short description|Text with all capital letters}}
{{for|the songs|All Caps (Madvillain song)|All Caps (Weathers song)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
[[File:LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard Nameplate.jpg|thumb|The name of the railway engine ''[[LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard|Mallard]]'', set in all capital letters]]
In [[typography]], text or font in '''all caps''' (short for "'''all capitals'''") contains [[capital letter]]s without any lowercase letters. For example: {{blockquote|THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG.}} All caps text can be seen in legal documents, [[advertisement]]s, newspaper [[headline]]s, and the titles on book covers. Short strings of words in capital letters appear bolder and "louder" than mixed case, and this is sometimes referred to as "screaming" or "shouting".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Articles/SituationalTypography/AllCaps.htm|title= ALL CAPS: To set or not to set?|author= Ilene Strizver |year= 2011|work= Fonts.com|publisher= Monotype Imaging|access-date= 21 June 2011 }}; {{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/technology/04link.html?em&ex=1202274000&en=dfad4f3ac1f773cf&ei=5087%0A|title=Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?|last=Cohen|first=Noam|date=4 February 2008|work=The New York Times|access-date=29 January 2011|quote=Jason Santa Maria, creative director of Happy Cog Studios, which designs Web sites, detected a basic breach of netiquette. 'Hillary's text is all caps, like shouting,' he said.}}</ref> All caps can also be used to indicate that a given word is an [[acronym]].

Studies have been conducted on the [[Typography#Principles of the typographic craft|readability and legibility]] of all caps text. Scientific testing from the 20th century onward has generally indicated that all caps text is less legible and readable than lower-case text.<ref name="autogenerated62">{{cite book|title= Type and Layout: How Typography and Design Can Get your Message Across – Or Get in the Way|last= Wheildon|first= Colin|year= 1995|publisher= Strathmoor Press|location= Berkeley|isbn= 0-9624891-5-8|page= [https://archive.org/details/typelayouthowtyp0000whei/page/62 62]|url= https://archive.org/details/typelayouthowtyp0000whei/page/62}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Nielsen|first1=Jakob|title=Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes|url=http://www.nngroup.com/articles/weblog-usability-top-ten-mistakes/|publisher=Nielsen Norman Group|access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref> In addition, switching to all caps may make text appear hectoring and obnoxious for cultural reasons, since all-capitals is often used in transcribed speech to indicate that the speaker is shouting.<ref name="All Caps, Butterick">{{cite web|last1=Butterick|first1=Matthew|title=All Caps|url=http://practicaltypography.com/all-caps.html|website=Practical Typography}}</ref> All caps text is common in comic books, as well as on older teleprinter and radio transmission systems, which often do not indicate letter case at all.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Computing/Capital_Letters.htm |title=Why are military messages in all capitals? |publisher=Alternatewars.com |access-date=2013-01-22 |archive-date=4 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904102043/http://alternatewars.com/BBOW/Computing/Capital_Letters.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://tabmok99.mortalkombatonline.com/spritecomic-tutorial.html |title=Sprite Comics Tutorial |publisher=Tabmok99.mortalkombatonline.com |date=10 December 2004 |access-date=2013-01-22}}</ref>

In professional documents, a commonly preferred alternative to all caps text is the use of [[small caps]] to emphasise key names or acronyms (for example, {{Smallcaps|Text in Small Caps}}), or the use of [[italic type|''italics'']] or (more rarely) [[bold text|'''bold''']].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Butterick|first1=Matthew|title=Small caps|url=http://practicaltypography.com/small-caps.html|website=Practical Typography|access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref> In addition, if all caps must be used it is customary to slightly widen the spacing between the letters, by around 10 percent of the point height. This practice is known as tracking or letterspacing.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Butterick|first1=Matthew|title=Letterspacing|url=http://practicaltypography.com/letterspacing.html|website=Practical Typography|access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref> Some digital fonts contain alternative spacing metrics for this purpose.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lupton|first1=Ellen|title=Kerning|url=http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/contents/text/|website=Thinking With Type|access-date=29 July 2015|archive-date=14 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180414065005/http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/contents/text/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Association with shouting or yelling {{anchor|Shouting|Yelling}}==
[[File:Yelling Village Name sign - geograph.org.uk - 3251101.jpg|thumb|Name sign (in capital letters) of the village of [[Yelling, Cambridgeshire|Yelling]] in Cambridgeshire, England]]
Messages completely in capital letters are often equated on [[social media]] to [[Screaming|shouting]] and other impolite or argumentative behaviors.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Willingham |first1=AJ |title=Why typing in all-caps looks like you're yelling (A brief history) |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/23/us/all-caps-typography-history-tweets-trnd/index.html |work=CNN |access-date=6 May 2020 |date=23 July 2018}}</ref> This became a mainstream interpretation with the advent of networked computers, from the 1980s onward. However, a similar interpretation was already evidenced by written sources that predated the computing era, in some cases by at least a century, and the textual display of shouting or emphasis was still not a settled matter by 1984. The following sources may be relevant to the history of all caps:<ref>{{cite web |url=https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/41249/when-did-people-decide-that-all-caps-means-the-writer-is-shouting |title=When did people decide that all caps means the writer is shouting? |website=[[Stack Exchange]] |date=26 October 2017}}</ref>
:* The 17 April 1856 edition of the ''Yorkville Enquirer'' (South Carolina) uses the expression "This time he shouted it out in capital letters." 
:* The 1880 book ''The Standard speaker and elocutionist'' has a section titled "SHOUTING STYLE", which states that "This will be seldom needed throughout an entire piece, but wherever the words imply calling, or commanding, it will be in keeping with the words to employ it. As examples note the following selections marked in CAPITAL letters as the appropriate place for shouting emphasis." A large number of literature examples are then given where all caps has been used to represent shouting. 
:* The 6 September 1958 edition of ''Bookseller: The Organ of the Book Trade'' describes writing in lower-case "rather than shouting with all caps. The effect is pleasing to anybody in a contemplative mood."
:* A 2014 article on [[netiquette]] (online etiquette) in ''[[The New Republic|New Republic]]'', titled "How Capital Letters Became Internet Code for Yelling",<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/117390/netiquette-capitalization-how-caps-became-code-yelling|title=How Capital Letters Became Internet Code for Yelling|magazine=The New Republic|date=17 April 2014|access-date=6 March 2018|last1=Robb|first1=Alice}}</ref> states that: 
::* According to Professor Paul Luna (of the [[University of Reading]]'s department of typography and graphic communication), all caps has been used "to convey grandeur, pomposity, or aesthetic seriousness for thousands of years", and for many years to express anger or shouting in print. Examples are cited such as pianist [[Philippa Schuyler]]'s 1940s biography titled "Composition in Black and White", which used all caps to "yell", and [[Robert Moses]], who in the 1970s used all caps to "convey rage" at a draft of a book.
::* Online [[newsgroup]]s and [[bulletin board]] posts from around 1984 show that a user still needed to explain that "if it's in caps i'm trying to YELL",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.jokes.d/eA4GCKCnlAY/VgVq5JuLllcJ|title=Google Groups|website=groups.google.com|access-date=6 March 2018}}</ref> or that "Capitalizing whole words gives the impression that you're shouting".<ref name="net.flame"/> Another summed up that there seemed to be a developing consensus that emphasis was given to words via all caps, or by surrounding them with asterisks.<ref name="net.flame">{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/net.flame/VbghoeOfwyI/E2mClWj2GV8J|title=Google Groups|website=groups.google.com|access-date=6 March 2018}}</ref>

== Usage ==
[[File:ALLCAPS OIFIG NA bPASANNA.JPG|thumb|right|[[Bilingual sign]] in Ireland. The [[eclipsis]] of ''P'' to ''bP'' [[Irish orthography#Capitalisation|uses lower case]] in an otherwise all caps text.]]

===Print media===
Before the development of [[lower case|lower-case]] letters in the 8th century, texts in the [[Latin alphabet]] were written in a single case, which is now considered to be capital letters. Text in all caps is not widely used in [[running text|body copy]]. The main exception to this is the so-called [[fine print]] in legal documents.

Capital letters have been widely used in printed headlines from the early days of newspapers until the 1950s. In the 1990s, more than three-quarters of newspapers in the western world used lower-case letters in headline text. Discussion regarding the use of all caps for headlines centers on the greater emphasis offered by all caps versus the greater legibility offered by lower-case letters.<ref name="autogenerated62"/> Colin Wheildon conducted a scientific study with 224 readers who analyzed various headline styles and concluded that "Headlines set in capital letters are significantly less legible than those set in lower case."<ref>{{cite book|title= Type and Layout: How Typography and Design Can Get your Message Across – Or Get in the Way|last= Wheildon|first= Colin|year= 1995|publisher= Strathmoor Press|location= Berkeley|isbn= 0-9624891-5-8|pages= [https://archive.org/details/typelayouthowtyp0000whei/page/65 65, 74]|url= https://archive.org/details/typelayouthowtyp0000whei/page/65}}</ref>

===Computing===
{{See also|Caps lock}}
{{more citations needed section|date=May 2015}}
All caps typography was common on teletype machines, such as those used by police departments, news, and the United States' then-called [[National Weather Service|Weather Bureau]], as well as early computers, such as certain early [[Apple II]] models and the [[ZX81]], which had a limited support for lower-case text. This changed as full support of [[ASCII]] became standard, allowing lower-case characters.

Some [[Soviet computers]], such as [[Radio-86RK]], [[Vector-06C]], [[Agat-7]], use 7-bit [[character encoding]] called [[KOI-7N2]], where capital Russian letters replace lower-case Latin letters in the [[ASCII table]], so can display both alphabets, but all caps only. [[Mikrosha]] is switchable to KOI-7N1, in this mode, it can display both caps and lower-case, but in Russian only. Other Soviet computers, such as [[BK0010]], [[MK 85]], [[Corvette (computer)|Corvette]] and [[Agat-9]], use 8-bit encoding called [[KOI-8]], they can display both Russian and Latin letters in caps and lower-case.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Many, but not all, [[NES]] games use all caps because of tile graphics, where charset and tiles share the same ROM. Game designers often choose to have less characters in favor of more tiles.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

{{anchor|shouting}}
With the advent of the [[bulletin board system]], or BBS, and later the Internet, typing messages in all caps commonly became closely identified with "shouting" or [[Attention seeking|attention-seeking]] behavior, and may be considered rude. Its equivalence to shouting traces back to at least 1984 and before the Internet, back to printed typography usage of all capitals to mean shouting.<ref>{{cite news|last=Robb|first=Alice|title=How Capital Letters Became Internet Code for Yelling|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/117390/netiquette-capitalization-how-caps-became-code-yelling|access-date=18 April 2014|newspaper=[[The New Republic]]|date=17 April 2014}}</ref>

For this reason, [[Etiquette in technology|etiquette]] generally discourages the use of all caps when posting messages online. While all caps can be used as an alternative to rich-text "bolding" for a single word or phrase, to express emphasis, repeated use of all caps can be considered "shouting" or irritating.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/woman-fired-for-e-mails-in-all-caps/|title=Woman fired for e-mails in all caps|last=Matyszczyk|first=Chris|date=2009-09-01|work=CNET|access-date=2018-04-17|language=en}}</ref>

Some aspects of Microsoft's [[Metro (design language)|Metro design language]] involve the use of all caps headings and titles. This has received particular attention when [[Menu (computing)|menu]] and [[Ribbon (computing)|ribbon]] titles appeared in all caps in [[Microsoft Visual Studio|Visual Studio 2012]] and [[Microsoft Office 2013|Office 2013]], respectively. Critics have compared this to a computer program shouting at its user. Information technology journalist Lee Hutchinson described Microsoft's using the practice as "LITERALLY TERRIBLE&nbsp;... [it] doesn't so much violate OS X's design conventions as it does take them out behind the shed, pour gasoline on them, and set them on fire."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hutchinson|first1=Lee|title=The software design trends that we love to hate|url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/07/the-software-design-trends-that-we-love-to-hate/|website=Ars Technica|date=12 July 2014|publisher=Conde Nast|access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref>

In programming, writing in all caps (possibly with [[underscore]]s replacing [[space (punctuation)|spaces]]) is an identifier [[Naming convention (programming)|naming convention]] in many [[programming language]]s that symbolizes that the given identifier represents a [[Constant (computer programming)|constant]].

===Surnames===
A practice exists (most commonly in [[French language|Francophone]] countries)<ref>{{cite web|url= http://french.about.com/library/writing/bl-capitalizationoftitles.htm|title= Capitalization of French Titles and Names|author= Laura K. Lawless|year= 2010|work= About.com|publisher= The New York Times Company|access-date= 9 July 2010|archive-date= 4 March 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113858/http://french.about.com/library/writing/bl-capitalizationoftitles.htm|url-status= dead}}</ref> of distinguishing the [[surname]] from the rest of a [[personal name]] by stylizing the surname only in all caps. This practice is also common among Japanese, when names are spelled using Roman letters.<ref>{{cite report|date= 2019-10-25<!-- date from page source -->|orig-date= Original date 2019-10-23|title= Kōyōbun tō ni okeru nihonjin no seimei no rōmaji hyōki ni tsuite|script-title= ja:公用文等における日本人の姓名のローマ字表記について|trans-title= Romanization of Japanese personal names in official documents|language= ja|url= https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/seimei_romaji/pdf/moshiawase.pdf|publisher= Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet|access-date= 2024-06-19}}</ref>

===Military communication===
In April 2013, the U.S. Navy moved away from an all caps-based messaging system, which was begun with 1850s-era teleprinters that had only uppercase letters.<ref name="WashPost0130613"/> The switch to mixed-case communications was estimated to save the Navy $20&nbsp;million a year and is compliant with current Internet protocol.<ref name="WashPost0130613">Payne, Ed, [http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/navy-all-caps/index.html "U.S. Navy adjusts to the times; ditches its ALL CAPS message format"] ({{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613175048/http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/navy-all-caps/index.html |date=13 June 2013 }}), ''The Washington Post'', 13 June 2013.</ref>

===Contract law===

An antiquated practice that still remains in use, especially by older American lawyers who grew up before the arrival of computers, is to use all caps text for text that is legally required to be emphasised and clearly readable.<ref name="Why is your Contract YELLING AT YOU? All Caps in Contracts, Explained.">{{cite web|title=Why is your Contract YELLING AT YOU? All Caps in Contracts, Explained.|url=http://www.shakelaw.com/blog/why-is-your-contract-yelling-at-you-all-caps-in-contracts-explained/|publisher=Shake Law|access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref> The practice dates to the period of typewriters, which generally did not offer bold text, small capitals, or the opportunity to add marginal notes emphasising key points.

Legal writing expert [[Bryan A. Garner]] has described the practice as "ghastly".<ref name="Legal writing in plain English : a text with exercises">{{cite book|last1=Garner|first1=Bryan A.|title=Legal writing in plain English: a text with exercises|date=2013|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226283937|edition=Second|url=http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/garner/documents/section44.html|access-date=2 August 2015}}</ref> A 2020 study found that all caps in legal texts is ineffective and is, in fact, harmful to older readers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Arbel|first1=Yonathan A.|last2=Toler|first2=Andrew|date=2020|title=All-Caps|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jels.12272|journal=Journal of Empirical Legal Studies|language=en|volume=17|issue=4|pages=862–896|doi=10.1111/jels.12272|s2cid=240784123|issn=1740-1461|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In 2002, a US court spoke out against the practice, ruling that simply making text all-capitals has no bearing on whether it is clear and easily readable:

{{blockquote|Lawyers who think their caps lock keys are instant "make conspicuous" buttons are deluded. In determining whether a term is conspicuous, we look at more than formatting. A term that appears in capitals can still be inconspicuous if it is hidden on the back of a contract in small type. Terms that are in capitals but also appear in hard-to-read type may flunk the conspicuousness test. A sentence in capitals, buried deep within a long paragraph in capitals will probably not be deemed conspicuous...it is entirely possible for text to be conspicuous without being in capitals.<ref name="In Re: Darlene M. Bassett">{{cite book|last1=Kozinsky|first1=Alex|title=In Re: Darlene M. Bassett|date=2002|publisher=United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.|location=San Francisco|url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1303216.html}}</ref>}}

===Pop culture===
Certain musicians—such as [[Marina Diamandis|Marina]], [[Finneas O'Connell|Finneas]], who are both known mononymously, and [[MF Doom|MF DOOM]]—as well as some bands such as [[Haim (band)|Haim]], [[Blackpink]] and [[Kiss (band)|Kiss]]—have their names stylised in all caps. Additionally, it is common for bands with vowelless names (a process colourfully known as "[[disemvoweling]]") to use all caps, with prominent examples including [[Strfkr|STRFKR]], [[Mstrkrft|MSTRKRFT]], [[Pwr Bttm|PWR BTTM]], [[Sbtrkt|SBTRKT]], [[Hotel Mira|JPNSGRLS]] (now known as Hotel Mira), [[Blk Jks|BLK JKS]], [[MNDR]], and [[Dwntwn|DWNTWN]]. It has also become common for albums and their track listings to be stylised in all caps, particularly in [[Hip-hop|hip hop]].

== Readability ==
[[Miles Tinker]], renowned for his landmark work, ''Legibility of Print'', performed scientific studies on the [[legibility]] and [[readability]] of all-capital print. His findings were as follows:

{{blockquote| All-capital print greatly retards speed of reading in comparison with lower-case type. Also, most readers judge all capitals to be less legible. Faster reading of the lower-case print is due to the characteristic word forms furnished by this type. This permits reading by word units, while all capitals tend to be read letter by letter. Furthermore, since all-capital printing takes at least one-third more space than lower case, more fixation pauses are required for reading the same amount of material. The use of all capitals should be dispensed with in every printing situation.<ref>{{cite book |title= Legibility of Print|url= https://archive.org/details/legibilityprint00mile|url-access= limited|last= Tinker|first= Miles A.|year= 1963|publisher= Iowa State University Press|location= Ames, Iowa|asin=B000I52NNE |page=[https://archive.org/details/legibilityprint00mile/page/n73 65]}}</ref>}}

According to Tinker, "As early as 1914, Starch reported that material set in Roman lower case was read somewhat faster than similar material printed in all capitals."<ref>D. Starch, ''Advertising'', 1914, Chicago: Scott, Foresman, quoted in Miles Tinker, ''Bases for Effective Reading'', 1965, Minneapolis, Lund Press. p.&nbsp;136.</ref> Another study in 1928 showed that "all-capital text was read 11.8 percent slower than lower case, or approximately 38 words per minute slower",<ref>{{cite journal | first1=M.A. | last1=Tinker | first2=D.G. | last2=Paterson | title=Influence of Type Form on Speed of Reading | year=1928 | journal=Journal of Applied Psychology | volume=12 | issue=4 | pages=359–368 | doi=10.1037/h0073699}}. Quoted in Miles Tinker, ''Bases for Effective Reading'', 1965, Minneapolis, Lund Press. p.&nbsp;136.</ref> and that "nine-tenths of adult readers consider lower case more legible than all capitals".<ref name="autogenerated136">Miles Tinker, ''Bases for Effective Reading'', 1965, Minneapolis, Lund Press. p.&nbsp;136.</ref>

A 1955 study by Miles Tinker showed that "all-capital text retarded speed of reading from 9.5 to 19.0 percent for the 5 and 10-minute time limits, and 13.9 percent for the whole 20-minute period".<ref>M.A. Tinker, "The Effect of Slanted Text upon the Readability of Print." 1954, ''Journal of Educational Psychology'', Vol. 45, 287–291, quoted in Miles Tinker, ''Bases for Effective Reading'', 1965, Minneapolis, Lund Press. p.&nbsp;136.</ref> Tinker concluded that, "Obviously, all-capital printing slows reading to a marked degree in comparison with Roman lower case."<ref name="autogenerated136"/>

Tinker provides the following explanations for why all capital printing is more difficult to read: {{blockquote|Text in all capitals covers about 35 percent more printing surface than the same material set in lower case. This would tend to increase the reading time. When this is combined with the difficulty in reading words in all-capital letters as units, the hindrance to rapid reading becomes marked. In the eye-movement study by Tinker and Patterson, the principal difference in oculomotor patterns between lower case and all capitals was the very large increase in number of fixation pauses for reading the all-capital print.<ref>M. A. Tinker and D.G. Paterson, "Studies of Typographical Factors Influencing Speed of Reading: IX. Reduction in Size of Newspaper Print," 1932, ''Journal of Applied Psychology'', Vol. 16, 525–531, quoted in Miles Tinker, ''Bases for Effective Reading'', 1965, Minneapolis, Lund Press. p. 137.</ref>}}

All caps text should be eliminated from most forms of composition, according to Tinker: {{blockquote|Considering the evidence that all-capital printing retards speed of reading to a striking degree in comparison with lower case and is not liked by readers, it would seem wise to eliminate such printing whenever rapid reading and consumer (reader) views are of importance. Examples of this would include any continuous reading material, posters, bus cards, billboards, magazine advertising copy, headings in books, business forms and records, titles of articles, books and book chapters, and newspaper headlines.<ref>M.A. Tinker and D.G. Paterson, "Readability of Mixed Type Forms," 1946, ''Journal of Applied Psychology'', Vol. 30, 631–637, quoted in Miles Tinker, ''Bases for Effective Reading'', 1965, Minneapolis, Lund Press. p.&nbsp;138.</ref>}}

Colin Wheildon stated that there is an "apparent consensus" that lower-case text is more legible, but that some editors continue to use all caps in text regardless. In his studies of all caps in [[headline]]s, he states that, "Editors who favor capitals claim that they give greater emphasis. Those who prefer lower case claim their preferences gives greater legibility." Wheildon, who informs us that "When a person reads a line of type, the eye recognizes letters by the shapes of their upper halves", asserts that recognizing words in all caps "becomes a task instead of a natural process".<ref>{{cite book|title= Type and Layout: How Typography and Design Can Get your Message Across – Or Get in the Way|last= Wheildon|first= Colin|year= 1995|publisher= Strathmoor Press|location= Berkeley|isbn= 0-9624891-5-8|pages= [https://archive.org/details/typelayouthowtyp0000whei/page/62 62–64]|url= https://archive.org/details/typelayouthowtyp0000whei/page/62}}</ref> His conclusions, based on scientific testing in 1982–1990, are: "Headlines set in capital letters are significantly less legible than those set in lower case."<ref>{{cite book|title= Type and Layout: How Typography and Design Can Get your Message Across – Or Get in the Way|last= Wheildon|first= Colin|year= 1995|publisher= Strathmoor Press|location= Berkeley|isbn= 0-9624891-5-8|page= [https://archive.org/details/typelayouthowtyp0000whei/page/74 74]|url= https://archive.org/details/typelayouthowtyp0000whei/page/74}}</ref>

[[John Ryder (Typographer)|John Ryder]], in the ''Case for Legibility'', stated that "Printing with capital letters can be done sufficiently well to arouse interest and, with short lines, reading at a slowed speed is possible – but in principle too many factors of low legibility are involved."<ref>{{cite book |title= The Case for Legibility|last= Ryder |first= John|year= 1979|publisher= Bodley Head|location= London|isbn= 0-370-30158-7|page=72}}</ref>

Other critics are of the opinion that all caps letters in text are often "too tightly packed against each other".<ref>{{cite book |title= Getting it Right with Type|last1= Squire|first1= Victoria|last2= Willberg|first2= Hans Peter|last3= Forsmann|first3= Friedrich|year= 2006|publisher= Laurence King Publishing|location= London|isbn= 978-1-85669-474-2|page= 59}}</ref>

===Ambiguities===
{{unreferenced section|date=January 2015}}
Besides the aforementioned speed of reading, all caps is prone to [[Character (symbol)|character]]-based ambiguities.

Namely, the upper-case letters are globally simpler than their lower-case counterpart. For example, they lack [[Ascender (typography)|ascenders]] and [[descender]]s.
Since they are built from fewer positional and building elements (e.g. a smaller grid pertaining to minimalist digital fonts), they are more fragile to small changes.

These variations, generally involuntary but sometimes induced on purpose, are caused by a misinterpretation (the information is transferred) or by a deterioration (the data is lost, in the analysis wording). They can occur horizontally and/or vertically, while misreading (without this extra effort or time), or during a delicate [[Optical character recognition#Text recognition|scanning of characters]] (from a damaged image that needs further contextual text correction).

Depending on the [[typeface]], these similarities accidentally create various duplicates (even quite briefly and without realizing it when reading).
E.g. H/A, F/E or I/T by adding a bar; P/R, O/Q, even C/G from similar errors; V/U, D/O, even B/S while rounding the shape; and more deformations implying mixings.

Adding digits in all caps styled texts may multiply these confusions, which is one aim of [[Leet]] (intentional pseudo duplicates) and can provide simple means of [[Steganography|concealing messages]] (often numbers).

== See also ==
*[[Caps Lock]]
*[[Camel case]]
*[[Letter case]]
*[[Roman square capitals]]
*[[Shift key]]
*[[Small caps]]
*[[Unicase]]
*[[Uncial script]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary|capital letter}}
*[https://practicaltypography.com/all-caps.html All caps] – Practical Typography
*[https://caseconvertonline.org/ All Caps Converter]

{{Typography terms}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:All Caps}}
[[Category:Typography]]
[[Category:Typesetting]]
[[Category:Capitalization]]