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View Poll Results: Which one do you use in your project work?

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  • CAPS

    107 81.06%
  • Sentence Style Capitalization

    25 18.94%
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Thread: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

  1. #1
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    Default CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    How about the all caps vs. sentence style capitalization issue? Which are most of you and your clients using?

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    Certifiable AUGI Addict robert.1.hall72202's Avatar
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    Default Re: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    "All capital letters" doesn't leave room for capitalization errors and ensures that
    drawing text looks legible. Sometimes lowercase letters can print sloppy on
    certain printers. Faxing can also having issues with lowercase text.

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    Wish List Manager BrenBren's Avatar
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    Default Re: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    Quote Originally Posted by gadjet
    How about the all caps vs. sentence style capitalization issue? Which are most of you and your clients using?
    We use all caps on all of our drawings.

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    Certified AUGI Addict jaberwok's Avatar
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    Default Re: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    Quote Originally Posted by gadjet
    How about the all caps vs. sentence style capitalization issue? Which are most of you and your clients using?
    Engineering drawings have "always" been done in all caps for reasons of legibility and consistency.
    CAD does make it feasible to use mixed case but I don't see any established companies doing so although many companies do seem to accept smaller text heights nowadays.

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    AUGI Addict Augi Doggie's Avatar
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    Default Re: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    All Caps is industry standard for all disiplines as far as I know.

    The only time I've seen upper and lower case in a drawing was one done by a landscape architect, and it was a pretty bad looking drawing. The client was very displeased.

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    Default Re: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    All caps, all the time. Just be careful when you switch over to email or AUGI...
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    I could stop if I wanted to JASONM30395's Avatar
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    Default Re: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    All CAPS, all the time.

    If you (or the client) ever microfiche the drawing lower case text might as well be a line.
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    Digital Delivery Director Brian Myers's Avatar
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    Default Re: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    All Caps is the only way to go. The only time I personally don't use it is when noting dimensional lumber. For some reason I just prefer 2x8 to 2X8, likely due to legability of numbers...

  9. #9
    I could stop if I wanted to Tom Dorner's Avatar
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    Default Re: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    My 2 cents is that the ALL CAPS METHOD is a hold over from the manual drafting days and simply has no place in the year 2006 and beyond. How many other things do you see printed in all Caps?

    I did a quick Web search and found a couple of articles regarding readability and user retention.

    http://hubel.sfasu.edu/courseinfo/SL03/email_study.htm

    http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/writing/typography.html

    An excerpt from the latter states:
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    ALL CAPS

    Perhaps the most frequently violated rule of readability involves the use of ALL CAPS (capital letters). Designers are often drawn to all caps because it forms neat, uniform, visual elements, or "blocks." Unfortunately, for precisely that reason, type set in all caps is more difficult to read.

    Your brain does not recognize words solely on the basis of specific letter combinations, but on the overall shape of the words. In fact, your brain recognizes whole phrases based on letter shape rather than identifying individual letters and words. Which of the following is easier to read: GOOD OLD DOG or good old dog.

    For readability, avoid all caps even in heads and subheads. The most readable headlines and subheads are set only with the first letter of the first word (and proper nouns) capitalized, just as in sentences.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    If the goal of drawings is to clearly communicate information, then the use of sentence case seems like a no-brainier to me.

  10. #10
    AUGI Addict Augi Doggie's Avatar
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    Default Re: CAPS vs Sentence Style Capitalization

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Dorner
    My 2 cents is that the ALL CAPS METHOD is a hold over from the manual drafting days and simply has no place in the year 2006 and beyond. How many other things do you see printed in all Caps?

    I did a quick Web search and found a couple of articles regarding readability and user retention.

    http://hubel.sfasu.edu/courseinfo/SL03/email_study.htm

    http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/writing/typography.html

    An excerpt from the latter states:
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    ALL CAPS

    Perhaps the most frequently violated rule of readability involves the use of ALL CAPS (capital letters). Designers are often drawn to all caps because it forms neat, uniform, visual elements, or "blocks." Unfortunately, for precisely that reason, type set in all caps is more difficult to read.

    Your brain does not recognize words solely on the basis of specific letter combinations, but on the overall shape of the words. In fact, your brain recognizes whole phrases based on letter shape rather than identifying individual letters and words. Which of the following is easier to read: GOOD OLD DOG or good old dog.

    For readability, avoid all caps even in heads and subheads. The most readable headlines and subheads are set only with the first letter of the first word (and proper nouns) capitalized, just as in sentences.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------

    If the goal of drawings is to clearly communicate information, then the use of sentence case seems like a no-brainier to me.
    With all due respect, neither of those articles is actually about Engineering or Architectural drawings.

    You don't seem to be considering readability issues for plan sets, which are often copied half size and/or used in the field by contractors. Reading all caps is much easier in those situations.

    Granted, we no longer use blue prints, which were a major factor in how a drawing needed to appear in order to reproduce a legible copy. But in the field it can be much more difficult to read a set of plans than it is to read it sitting in your office.

    Don't get me wrong, I don't think upper and lower case is always a bad idea, some clients may accept it. I also think issues like this deserve to be revisited on occasion to keep everyone thinking of new possibilities.

    But it's not always good to do something just because you can. And I certainly think this subject is not a "no brainer".
    Last edited by BrenBren; 2006-03-21 at 02:59 PM. Reason: spelling

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