Capital Letters

I’m going to tackle an issue that I see as a very common problem. Most people understand that it is important to emphasize things in their text. Most people also understand that ways of doing this include using bold letters, italic letters, capital letters, different colors, and large text. Unfortunately, though, most people really have no idea how to effectively use these methods. Many people often end up using the wrong kind of emphasis, or using entirely too much emphasis.

We’re going to tackle each of these over the next few post. Today we’ll just be covering capital letters, or “All Caps”.

CAPITAL LETTERS ARE AWESOME!

If you know anything about typography you can guess why I’m addressing this one first. If you don’t know why I’m addressing this first, hopefully you will soon. Here’s the deal: all capital letters can be used elegantly, but probably not by you. Don’t worry, though, it’s okay. Capital letters are a very hard thing to use well. The problem is that most people think that you should use them to add emphasis. If you look at good design, though, that’s rarely the case.

Why you should avoid all capital letters

Personally, I try to avoid using all-capital letters. Only certain fonts do it well, you usually need to space the letters out more, and it’s very hard to make it look like you’re not yelling. Italic capital letters are especially bad at this. They give the feeling that the text is running and screaming at the same time.

The problem is that the way we read is usually heavily influenced by the height of the letters. In lowercase text you have all sorts of highs and lows. Differences like that aid in reading a great deal. Capital letters (in most fonts), however, are all the same height. This makes it more difficult to read because the text is more blocky and thus less recognizable.

Basic rules

So here are some rules for using all-capital letters. You can break these, but be very careful.

• Don’t use all capital letters.
• If you use all capital letters, only use it for small sections of text.
• If you want to look like your yelling, reconsider yelling; it’s rude.
• Avoid mixing all caps with italic, underlined, or bold text—especially italic.
• All capital letters are best used in headers, avoid using it in body text.

Personally, I rarely use all capital letters. I’ve done it in logo design, and a couple typographic compositions, but I don’t make a habit of it. The big thing about all capital letters is that you need to think it through. If you’re just using them to get attention, try something else. Unless they’re used very carefully, it’s very tacky.

The next post will cover emphasis a bit more broadly, and talk about mixing emphasis methods. I wanted to get all capital letters out of the way because it’s really my biggest pet-peeve.. Stay tuned!