Editing All caps (section)

== 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]] 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]].