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From: dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu (David M Tate)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Coding in lowercase - references?
Message-ID: <61679@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 17 Nov 90 19:32:59 GMT
References: <20517.273e9e6b@merrimack.edu> <0093FC00.24D7FA00@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU> <1990Nov17.013754.10134@ico.isc.com>
Reply-To: dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu (David M Tate)
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Services
Lines: 32

In article <1990Nov17.013754.10134@ico.isc.com> rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:
>parks@BINAH.CC.BRANDEIS.EDU writes:
>>      The way I remember the story, IBM did a study on the comparative
>> readabilities of upper- and lower-case text.  It was found that lower-
>> case text was the more readable,...
>
>AArrgghhh!!! Why do the legends always have it that IBM invented/discover-
>ed/studied everything???
>
>It's long-established knowledge in typography that lower case is more
>readable...it probably far predates IBM's very existence.

Exactly.  Thanks Dick.

As a matter of fact, this arcane knowledge predates the invention of moveable
type.  What we call "lower case" letters are the calligraphic descendents of 
the old Roman capitals you see on government buildings.  In the centuries-
long battle between legibility and space efficiency, legibility finally won
when paper became cheap, and the *most legible* standard hands (humanist
bookhand and Italic) were used as the models for most European type designs.
(The big exception was Germany, where the illegible Fraktur script was used).

What we call upper-case letters are the descendants of versal initials, adapted
to conform to the style of a particular lower-case hand (*not* the other way
around).  It would have been unthinkable, in the 15th century, to set text in
all upper-case letters for more than one or two words.

-- 
         David M. Tate          |   Concord and time, each needeth each:
   dtate@unix.cis.pitt.edu      |   The ripest fruit hangs where not one
  "A Man for all Seasonings"    |   But only two can reach.
      scapegoat-at-large        |  		--William Plomer, "Gloriana"