Syntax question: All writing with or withoutcap locks

Mostly caps, because they are easier to read at various sizes of drawing
reproduction. But, not an absolute - sometimes lower case for a special
occasion.

WT

 

i have a drawing requirements manual (references multiple standards) no
mention of explict use of caps for notes (although all examples are in
caps).

 

I use an all caps font (Technic)....

 

I believe it's still appropriate in ANSI/ASME standards to use all caps
in the field of the drawing. However, I use normal writing
capitalization when writing notes and revision history, basically to
save space. If you're doing mil-spec work that's a different thing and
in the US I believe all caps EVERYWHERE are still much preferred if not
actually required. Can't say about Canada.

'Sporky'

 

Do you write all notes and dimension text with or without caps lock on? We
see both practice in the industry but is there one standard?

--
Robin B
Mech Eng, Montréal, Canada
Self employed
SW2004 SP2.1
Shuttle SB75G
Intel 3 Ghz, 1 gig ram HyperX ddr433
FX500, Spaceball 4000FLX

 

Interesting human factors fact- it is easeir to read mixed caps and
lowercase. That is why the body text of books and newspapers are printed in
caps and lowercase instead of in all caps.

If you want an objective test, give it a try on any lengthy WORD document
that you may have laying around. Select all the words and go to
format-change case. Try reading it in all caps then in 'sentence' case and
see what makes your brain hurt more. Adopt the less painful one as your
default, whatever that may be.

That said, I suspect that all caps is less likely to degrade to a useless
state after a few smudged copies. If I had to come up with a theory, all
caps was adopted as a standard becuase of poor reproduction technologies.
As Wayne says, all caps are bigger so they will still be legible when the
drawing is tiny (though making caps and lowercase bigger would also work)
From a pure human factors standpoint, caps and lowercase is hard to dis.

Since I had it in my archive, the following is kind of relevant and provides
an interesting factoid about reading and human factors:

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't
mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt
tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it
wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig, huh?

 

I bet that gave your spell check fits!

MT

 

Ed, I respectfully take a diverging point of view on this. Let me start by
conceding unconditionally that flowing content is much easier to digest in
"Sentence case" capitalisation.

I think it's oversimplifying the issues to leap from this observation to the
suggestion that engineering drawings should therefore ideally be
predominantly annotated in lower case.

Notes on an engineering drawing are (preferably) written in a non-flowing
language form, similar to telegraph language, or newspaper headlines. This
is because the primary vehicle in an engineering drawing is not text, but
linework and/or shaded renditions. Drawings are essentially written in a
graphic "language", and I would expect that this is probably processed in a
different area of the brain.

Text is used in drawings only where the graphic depiction does not
unambiguously convey the definition.
To avoid clutter, distraction and detraction, content is truncated by
leaving out words: we don't write
"We suggest that this component should be bead-blasted before it goes in the
treatment tank for etching"
we say "BEAD BLAST PRIOR TO ETCHING"

The truer comparison along the lines of your suggestion, I feel, would be to
compare which of these is easier on the brain, rather than taking a lengthy
Word document as the trial horse.


Then (from the same distance- remembering that we often read drawings pinned
to a wall or whatever) compare the second rendition above with
"bead blast prior to etching"

If we scale up the lower case text for legibility from a distance, the line
spacing increases to cope with the wasteful aspect ratio variations.
The text starts to compete with the linework for our attention, whereas it
should amplify it where the linework is insufficient.

In the context of "reading" a drawing, I consider the ALL CAPS approach wins
hands down.
However, translating a novel into telegraphese, and/or printing a novel in
ALL CAPS, would clearly not work.

Perhaps it is not entirely coincidental that telegrams were invariably
printed in all capitals, and newspaper headlines still are.

------

The other factor in a drawing, aside from reproduction fidelity issues, is
that when they are in a workshop or worksite, they become subject to dirt,
oil, sparks, and other indignities. Capitals are less fiddly, and generally
more unambiguous in this context. The exception is O and 0, (although,
depending on font, these vary in differentiation), whereas l (lowercase L)
and 1 (number one) are always problematic in any font, unless we can see
them both at once.

Personally I avoid lower case on engineering drawings except in two
situations:

1) recognised abreviations, such as kW, mm, Nm
2) notes which are intended for pre-issue reading : perhaps a note to myself
("Check stress at this section" or a detailer "show this recess in a
transverse scrap section": (I also colour these green, and tilt them so they
stand out) These are to be acted on, then deleted, before issue.

-----

I've already rambled on overmuch, but it occurs to me that is the very
redundancy of lower case, serif text which makes it so easy to skim in
flowing language- our brain chooses its own identifiers on the fly, to suit
its unique pattern recognition and rhythm, and fills in gaps (words we don't
explicitly read) from contextual inferences, whereas upper case sans serif
works at the opposite end, where every letter is clipped and unambiguous,
every word is freighted with significance, and we DO NOT want the reader to
skim and infer.

 

I apologize if it appeared I was advocating that mixed case was my
recommendation for DRAWINGS.

I just thought it interesting that Wayne finds caps easier to read when
other fields that focus on communication (specifically graphic design and
typesetting) have established that mixed case is easier to read. That was
kind of my point of interest, and what I wanted to comment on.

I must learn to use my words to convey tone better. I believe the ANSI
standard is caps, and know that our engineers use all caps in their
drawings. I provided MORE specific instances in my post for why CAPS would
be preferred for drawings than I did for the contrary, and you spelled out a
whole bunch of others. Your thoughtful response ought to be of great value
to Robin.

At no point did I say that engineering drawings should ideally be annotated
in mixed case. The closest I came was to propose an objective test in case
the poster had case it their discretion, and suggested that the decision may
be informed by his results (which may be caps are easier to read). Though I
am guilty of saying that mixed case is hard to dis, but again it was from a
pure ease of use standpoint.
If you want to make things easier to read, you really have to use mixed
case - we ought to all agree on this. If you want a more deliberate
investment from your reader, if you want to avoid them looking at words as
packets (like in the misspelling thing at the end of my post) then CAPS
actually works to your purpose. In a drawing, which is a legal document that
has lots of money associated with it, a strong case can be made for
requiring more of an investment from the reader. Again, leveraging the
human factors stuff, but in a different direction!

Thanks for your comments, Andrew
-Ed

 

Andrew,

I am impressed by the clarity of you points. If I was ever wishy-washy
about the case I used in a drawing note - that time is no more. Were
you on the debate team?

Sincerely,
Jerry Forcier

 

Guys

Thank you both for your comments

Ed

Guilty as charged! I did misrepresent your point of view, by collapsing it
as I did.

Looking back, I took your "Adopt the less painful one as your default,
whatever that may be" -- along with my personal conviction that applying the
ALL CAPS instance of the suggested test to a lengthy document would
inevitably result in severe pain to anyone with "conventional" brain wiring
(please don't flame me, any CAPS addicts !) --
as a de facto recommendation for mixed case on drawings.

Jerry

I *was* on the debating team, but I never did that well, probably 'cos my
Dad was the teacher who ran (and often judged) the debates, and praps I was
trying to protect us both from the accusation or avoidance or actuality of
favouritism.
(If that's too obscure: if I was crap enough, then even Dad would recognise
it!)