A minor frustration is in the way these forums have been coded - re the full and the mobile version.
The default text size, font and style on this forum are set by CSS properties and the size is probably something along the lines of 100%. The font and size options within the message body override the default text properties but frustratingly they are absolute browser-specific sizes (text size=1, text size=2, etc.) The browser default is 3 if no size is selected by the page designer.
Because the text size has been set (or I so assume) to a %, there isn't any match between the selectable text size options and the default size in these boards.
The frustration bit is when one uses the text size options here to change the text size for clarity or emphasis. How the text appears in the desktop version is not how the text appears on a mobile device even if one's using the "full" version. For example, springyzone, "This is size 3, for instance" is larger than the default text size when accessing this thread on a computer, but if I look at it on my iPhone (in the full version), it's smaller than the default text size (the rest of the text).
(Size 4 is closer to the default text size on a mobile device full version, but larger on a desktop. Oh, the joys of inconsistent web architecture!)
Re text in ALL CAPS being harder to read - yes. I have seen one paper discussing an extremely limited study (using 2 visually impaired participants and 2 normal-visioned participants) where the conclusion was different to that normally found, but the limits and methodology of the study had me tsk-tsking.
In general, reading a substantial amount of text in upper-case is not as easy as reading a substantial amount of text in sentence-case. One reason is that this is how we normally read text, so we are "trained" to be able to read such text relatively swiftly. An associated reason is that we are used to the shape of letters and words, primarily by seeing the top half, as we quickly distinguish between low letters (a, c, e, g, i, j, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, u, v, w, x, y, z) and high letters (b, d, f, h, k, l, t). It seems to allow the eye to make an instant recognition of a word rather than a more laborious process of visually tracing each letter and putting them together to form a word.
For example,
ALL CAPS
Spoiler
a) THERE IS NO MORE HORRENDOUS THING THAN TO BE CONFRONTED BY THE DEAD GHOST OF ONE'S PAST TRANSGRESSIONS IN PERPETUA. THE VERY FABRIC OF RENEWED GUILT COMPRESSES THE SOUL LIKE A MINUSCULE CORSET, ALL THE MORE WRETCHED BECAUSE THE MATTER HAD BEEN THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN PUT TO BED LONG SINCE. GUILT REVIVIFIED IS A SOUR AND ILL CREATURE, AND IT DOES THE BEARER NO GOOD, FOR IF AN EMOTIONAL AND MORAL RESOLUTION HAS BEEN ACHIEVED, THE GUILT IS AN AUTOMATICALLY-GENERATED REMNANT REALISED BY SYNAPSE-SPARKED ACTIVITY, ITSELF ACTIVATED BY DELIBERATE AND REPEATED EXTERNAL STIMULI DESIGNED TO WAKEN THE CORPSE OF A DISUSED AND ESCHEWED PAST.
Sentence case
Spoiler
b) There is no more horrendous thing than to be confronted by the dead ghost of one's past transgressions in perpetua. The very fabric of renewed guilt compresses the soul like a minuscule corset, all the more wretched because the matter had been thought to have been put to bed long since. Guilt revivified is a sour and ill creature, and it does the bearer no good, for if an emotional and moral resolution has been achieved, the guilt is an automatically-generated remnant realised by synapse-sparked activity, itself activated by deliberate and repeated external stimuli designed to waken the corpse of a disused and eschewed past.
@padraicpaul91, you may want to take the challenge and see which of the above examples you find easier to read (and more, to comprehend). Obviously I am approaching this with my own reading and comprehension in mind, and I'm a natural speed reader... I race through b) without hesitation or pause, but have to go "block by block" with the all-caps example in a). It's also harder in a) to carry the sense of the first two sentences through to the third (complex) sentence, so that the paragraph as a whole is more difficult to absorb than if I read b) (the sentence case paragraph).
There's also an interesting phenomenon in how easily we can recognise words even if the bottom half is removed, whereas we would have quite a lot of difficulty in recognising the same words with the top half removed. This appears to lend weight to the contention that part of fluent reading comes from our ready recognition of the shape of the top half of words, which again lends weight to the low letters/high letters idea.
