Titles in all-caps?

["Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Roberta Boyle is <<...having a discussion about writing titles all in
uppercase.  I understood that this is a no-no. Does anyone have any
idea what a Style Guide says on the subject? Right now I don't have
any Style Guides to reference.>>

The reason behind this logic is that all-caps text is harder to read
than text set in upper and lower case. Why? Because the letters
have less shape variation to helps you distinguish them than
lower-case letters, and because between-word spacing tends to
become inadequate for the larger capital letters. For those reasons,
it's generally a bad idea to set body text entirely in capital
letters. But since titles and headings are usually quite short, the
differences in legibility that you create with an all-caps title are
not a grave problem. I find them particularly effective in scientific
publishing, where main headings are typically less than 3 words long.

I don't generally recommend any particular style guide, because I
feel that it's generally more important to understand the reason why
something works or doesn't work than to simply quote chapter and
verse from some legal text. But if you absolutely need a reference,
try either the "Chicago Manual of Style" (general or academic
publishing) or "Read me first! The Sun style guide" (computer
industry). There are tons of other industry-specific guides (CBE,
ACS, etc.). Check your local university library for details. Find one
you like, and invest some money in a copy for your office.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Patience comes to those who wait."--Anon.


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