Glenn Fleishman on the Typographic History of Using All-Caps to Denote Shouting

Glenn Fleishman, writing at Meh:

Previous articles on this subject — such as this previously definitive short at the New Republic — trace the explicit association of capitals with yelling (as opposed to mere emphasis) to 1984, with inferences a few decades before that.

I’m here to BLOW THIS OUT OF THE WATER, with a series of citations that date back to 1856. People have been uppercase shouting intentionally for a century more than recollected. And, as with so many things, longtime Internet users want to claim credit, when they really just passed on and more broadly popularized an existing practice.

★ Monday, 16 May 2016