“(A) a heading in capitals equal to or greater in size than the surrounding text, or in contrasting type, font, or color to the surrounding text of the same or lesser size and Technically the law defines conspicuous as: And that’s because of a historical quirk. Usually those guidelines apply to the parts of the contract that sound something like: “COMPANY X DOES NOT GUARANTEE THAT WE’LL KEEP ANY OF OUR PROMISES AND EVERYTHING IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.” Makes sense that those sections should be hard to miss.Įxcept that in this case, making text “conspicuous,” also makes it harder to read. law for this one (specifically, the Uniform Commercial Code) which requires that certain sections of a contract be "conspicuous.” This is actually the reason so many legal documents and contracts have sections that seem to be shouting. In 2009, President Obama signed a new law that would require larger labels with vivid graphics, but the tobacco industry put up a legal fight, and the new labels have been in limbo ever since.Ĭompanies can (and do) claim that they are trying to “emphasize” the important stuff by putting it in all caps. Since 1984 all cigarette packages have been required to include one of four specific health warnings, with the “SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING” phrase set in capital letters. “We hope that using all caps for emphasis will get people’s attention when it matters and encourage people to take action to protect their safety.”Ī less than easy-to-read safety warning.
TAKE COVER NOW!’" said Art Thomas, the weather service meteorologist in charge of the project. “We realized we could still use ALL CAPS within products to add emphasis, such as ‘TORNADO WARNING. Now that the weather service can use ALL CAPS sparingly - as a tool to highlight real danger - the public is more likely to pay attention.
When nothing stands out, people are likely to miss real emergencies. Once people realize that most of the time it’s not, they may become desensitized to warnings. Using ALL CAPS for everything - from severe hurricanes to a slight chance of showers - means that EVERYTHING LOOKS THE SAME AND EVERYTHING LOOKS IMPORTANT. In the case of the weather service’s all-caps type, it’s the font version of the boy who cried wolf. Ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but type choices are a big deal - and can, in fact, have life or death consequences. SAgbtUMMEp- NWS April 11, 2016įor type nerds everywhere, this is a triumphant typographic victory the likes of which we haven’t seen since Massimo Vignelli re-designed the New York City subway sign system.
#HUMANIST TYPEFACE UPDATE#
It’s taken a long time for the weather service (and its customers) to update all their hardware and software, but now they’re finally ready to enter the 20th Century.īEGINNING ON MAY 11, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECASTS WILL STOP YELLING AT YOU. Unfortunately, people have since learned to recognize those capital letters AS YELLING. Old equipment left over from early weather service days of the late 1800s could only handle capital letters. The weather service’s caps-lock habit didn’t happen entirely by choice.
Beginning May 11, for the first time ever, we’ll start seeing mixed-case letters. After decades of silently shouting at the top of its lungs, the National Weather Service recently announced that it’s going to stop publishing its forecasts and weather warnings in ALL CAPS.
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