Browsing the OzPolitics Blog Feed reminded me of something I’ve wondered about for some time. Why do so many right wing bloggers insist on using ALL CAPITALS for the post titles? Is it meant to be YELLING, provide emphasis, or because they have trouble with the CAPS LOCK?
Back in the early days of personal computers I sent some years doing freelance typesetting and I learned a thing or two about typography and its use in communication and design.
Perceptual psychologists, using controlled experiments and scientific methodology, have demonstrated beyond doubt that type set in ALL CAPITALS is harder to read and results in lower comprehension of the message. That’s why newspapers and books rarely use ALL CAPITALS.
UPPER CASE has its place of course, mostly as a visual design element, but not for effective communication.
Just wondering…
There’s even an html code to identify remarks in all caps, because otherwise text-to-speech readers (for the blind) read out everything in caps as acronyms, ie one letter at a time.
Although I have been known to misuse the caps for ironic effect sometimes myself.
I find righties who type in bold just as annoying.
A G R E E D!
Especially those people who restate their arguments at the end of their post.
Like this.
(Not naming any names)