Editing All caps (section)

== 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).