Re: A call for evidence: sentence or title case for headings?
Gunnar Swanson <[email protected]> Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:15:35 -0400
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.infodesign.general |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Rob, I wrote "Knowing that others do x should only sway you if you want to be like those others in some superficial way" and you said I was wrong because, after all, there are reasons that one would want to be like others in some superficial way. Huh? We're not talking about whether the headings should be set in Hangul or Persian. Of course damned near everything has implications. But talking about it in terms of demands for data is not the same as saying they want a specific tone. Gunnar ---------- Gunnar Swanson Design Office 1901 East 6th Street Greenville NC 27858 USA [email protected] +1 252 258 7006 all new website: http://www.gunnarswanson.com On Mar 15, 2010, at 12:52 PM, Rob Waller wrote: > 'Knowing that others do x' is actually quite important, isn't it - > after all, that's how the meaning of words is determined these days > (that is, from common usage). As Mark put it earlier, it's a genre > issue. Here in the UK, title case makes something look American, > which I imagine is a desirable thing in America. Changing common > usage is a little like spelling reform, but perhaps not as extreme - > you'll get resistance. > > Actually I can think of one functional reason why title case (or > should I say Title Case) is better (unfortunately): it has > redundancy and survives when other signals (such as a font change or > line break) fail. > > Rob > __________________________________ > > Rob Waller > > Department of Typography & Graphic Communication > University of Reading > T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 > M +44 (0) 7850 665933 > > > > On 15 Mar 2010, at 13:17, Gunnar Swanson wrote: > >> On Mar 14, 2010, at 7:00 AM, Caroline Jarrett wrote: >>> I'm just having a tussle with an editor about whether to use title >>> case or >>> sentence case in headings in an online column - quite a long one, a >>> few >>> screens-ful. >>> >>> The editor asked me: "What's your data?". >> >> (At first quick read I thought you were saying that the headings were >> very long rather than the column.One might argue that long headings >> are not headings or deks but rather ledes, thus sentence case makes >> sense.) >> >> Making decisions based on data without logic is, tautologically >> enough, illogical. Knowing that others do x should only sway you if >> you want to be like those others in some superficial way. Was the >> editor expecting studies showing that people read faster or retain >> more information one way or another? The question then would be >> whether the purpose of headings is to get someone to read faster or >> retain more of the information in the heading. >> >> It seems like a question of what fits best into the general practice >> of the publication. >> >> Gunnar >> ---------- >> Gunnar Swanson Design Office >> 1901 East 6th Street >> Greenville NC 27858 >> USA >> >> [email protected] >> +1 252 258 7006 >> >> all new website: >> http://www.gunnarswanson.com >> >> ___________________________________________________________________ >> >> Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: >> [email protected] >> >> To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: >> http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe >> >> For all Information Design matters: >> http://InformationDesign.org >> >> Problems? Write to: >> [email protected] >> ___________________________________________________________________ > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > [email protected] > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > [email protected] > ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe For all Information Design matters: http://InformationDesign.org Problems? Write to: [email protected] ___________________________________________________________________