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{{trope}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:all lowercase letters}}
[[Self-Demonstrating Article|a stylistic choice in which all text is in lowercase letters]]. it can be thought of as the opposite of [[Bold Inflation|writing in all caps]] when [[Large Ham|emphasizing a point]], in which case it can be used to give a melancholic feel to whatever you're writing. it is [[Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma|not generally thought of as orthographically correct]], giving it (if only in the eyes of advertisers) a casual, hip feel.
can also occur in internet forums monitored by censorship daemons programmed to demote all-caps entries, since all-lower-case text is much more readable than no-lower-case.
also see [[No Punctuation Period|no punctuation period]].
{{examples|examples of all lowercase letters include:}}
== [[advertising]] ==
* "i'm lovin' it." actually, all [[McDonald's|mcdonalds]]' advertising since the switch to this slogan.
* vitamin water labels.
* the got milk? commercials.
== [[art]] ==
* in addition to his more well known logo-like signature, [[Norman Rockwell|norman rockwell]] occasionally signed his paintings in all lowercase cursive.
== [[Fan Works|fan works]] ==
* the title of ''[[Legolas By Laura|legolas by laura]]''
* from the mid 2010s a trend in several fandoms is to write fanfics entirely this way, usually tagged as "lapslock"
== [[literature]] ==
* because it is written in the perspective of two different people, half of the john green/david levithan book ''[[Will Grayson Will Grayson|will grayson will grayson]]'' is written this way.
* in [[Douglas Coupland|douglas coupland]]'s novel ''jpod'', a number of characters from a lesbian commune spell their names entirely in lower case, because they see upper case as "privileging" certain letters over others.
* feminist author [[
* author [[Andrew J Offutt|andrew j. offutt]] likes to write his name in all lowercase.
* [[E. E. Cummings|e. e. cummings']] editor published him this way to make him stand out, and now everybody writes his name this way. also, this trope and [[No Punctuation Period|lack of punctuation]] (other than parentheses) were the signature style of cummings' poetry, and it spawned plenty of [[Follow the Leader|imitators]].
* don marquis wrote a series of newspaper columns in the early 20th century supposedly typed by archy the cockroach (a human poet reincarnated as an insect), who
* in the hungarian book ''pál utcai fiúk'' (''the boys from paul street'') nemecsek
* [[After the Quake|after the quake]]'s chapter titles are all written in lowercase. the english version of the book also has the title in lowercase.
* australian poet joanne burns actually changed her name to lowercase. however, she does use uppercase letters ''occasionally'' in her work.
* [[The Immortals Series|the immortals series]] does it on covers. even the author's name, yes.
* this is how angolan-portuguese writer [[Valter Hugo Mae|valter hugo mãe]] writes his entire books and signs his own name.
* arguably a particular class of imitator is the fridge poem, where it is more economical to give the fridge poem many lowercase letters rather than splitting the pack between uppercase and lowercase letters in some proportion.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
== [[music]] ==
* lots of song lyrics are written this way
* sillyworld by stone sour is written this way
* [[Tori Amos|tori amos]]. she even has an album title in all lowercase letters (''from the choirgirl hotel'').
* 65daysofstatic
* theaudience
* bond, not to be confused with [[James Bond|the other guy]]
* bülow
* [[The Cars|the cars]]
* fun.
* [[Joy Electric|joy electric]]
* the name of the swedish rock band kent is spelled, well, like that.
* [[k.d. lang]]
* maybeshewill
* mc chris
* [[Nine Inch Nails|nine inch nails]]
* [[Peter Gabriel|peter gabriel]] signs his work as such.
* potsu
* set fire to flames
* [[silverchair]]
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* [[iamamiwhoami]]; their song titles (such as "b", "u-1", and "; john") are all lowercase letters as well
* [[Bjork|björk]]
* the [[Beastie Boys|beastie boys]] albums ''paul's boutique'' and ''hello nasty'' take this trope [[Up to Eleven|up to eleven]] by having the liner notes be a simple fold-out with all the lyrics printed in lowercase without punctuation, making for a [[Wall of Text|wall of text]] that can be difficult to follow at times. ''check your head'' side-steps the issue entirely by not having lyrics, while ''ill communication'' has all the lyrics written normally but in an eye-strainingly small font.
* two of the founding members of [[Black Eyed Peas|the black eyed peas]], will.i.am and apl.de.ap.
* [[Exist Trace|exist trace]] and guitarist miko.
* [[BTS (band)|bts]] member j-hope usually stylizes his artistic name under this trope. also, the second mixtape member rm released, ''mono.'' has its title and all its tracks names styled in lowercase.
== [[networks]] ==
* [[Adult Swim|[adult swim]]
* [[TBS|tbs]] (the one in the usa, not the japanese one) is stylized with all lowercase letters, as is the slogan "very funny".
== [[Newspaper Comics|newspaper comics]] ==
* ''[[Jump Start|jump start]]'' uses this for the speech of small children, originally as a [[Translation Convention|translation convention]].▼
* moe from ''[[Calvin and Hobbes|calvin and hobbes]]'' talks like this, in addition to having his own [[Painting the Medium|distinctive font]].▼
== [[Video Games|video games]] ==
▲* ''[[Jump Start]]'' uses this for the speech of small children, originally as a [[Translation Convention]].
* ''[[Cat Planet|cat planet]]''▼
▲* moe from ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' talks like this, in addition to having his own [[Painting the Medium|distinctive font]].
* planet's speech in ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri|sid meier's alpha centauri]]'' is never capitalized. it also constantly refers to specific people as "earth<name>" (e.g. earthdierdre).
* ''luminesweeper'' for the [[Game Boy Advance|game boy advance]] uses lowercase arial bold throughout its on-screen text.▼
* vell-os telepathy in ''[[Escape Velocity|ev nova]]'' is depicted as all-lowercase with [[No Punctuation Period|no punctuation]].▼
* ''[[fault|fault milestone one]]'' and ''milestone two''. even the subtitle is in lowercase (''side:above'', ''side:below'').
* several characters in ''[[Undertale|undertale]]'' talk this way, more notoriously sans, napstablook, and alphys. the usual implication is that characters that speak in lowercase do so to accurately represent their depressive, low self-esteem personalities (blooky, alphys at her lowest), or because they are too lazy to capitalize properly (sans). {{spoiler|nope, turns out sans is in the "depressive, low self-esteem" group too, he just disguise it better.}}
==[[Web Comics|web comics]]==
* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court|gunnerkrigg court]]'' uses the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131111034540/http://www.blambot.com/font_aleandwenches.shtml ale and wenches font], which has some letters look the same in uppercase and lowercase. tom siddell's melancholic use of this and [[No Punctuation Period|no punctuation]] are also evident in his [[Concept Art|concept art]] [http://tea-san.deviantart.com/art/Gamma-Zeta-5061159 here]{{Dead link}}.▼
* because most dialogue in ''[[
▲* ''[[Heretic]]'' and ''[[Hexen]]'', except for the title logos.
▲* ''[[Cat Planet]]''
▲* ''[[The white chamber]]'' (title of the game)
▲* chaos from [[Xenosaga]] which is done in contrast to the all caps KOS-MOS
▲* planet's speech in ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'' is never capitalized. it also constantly refers to specific people as "earth<name>" (e.g. earthdierdre).
▲* ''luminesweeper'' for [[Game Boy Advance]] uses lowercase arial bold throughout its on-screen text.
▲* ''[[Skate]]'' is always marketed as ''skate.''
▲* vell-os telepathy in ''[[Escape Velocity|ev nova]]'' is depicted as all-lowercase with [[No Punctuation Period]].
▲* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' uses the [http://www.blambot.com/font_aleandwenches.shtml ale and wenches font], which has some letters look the same in uppercase and lowercase. tom siddell's melancholic use of this and [[No Punctuation Period]] are also evident in his [[Concept Art]] [http://tea-san.deviantart.com/art/Gamma-Zeta-5061159 here].
▲* because most dialogue in ''[[Homestuck]]'' is typed, not spoken, several characters 'speak' like this, including jade, john, dave, aradia, sollux, nepeta and eridan.
** some exiles also type like this, but only because [[After the End|they have never typed before]].
*** though more of them talk more '''[[Bold Inflation|emphatically]]'''.
* ''[[Minus (Webcomic)|
* ''[[Pictures for Sad Children|pictures for sad children]]'' uses this to add to its cynical and fatalist tone
* ''[[xkcd]]'' in some of the earlier comics. also the most proper of the various ways of [un]capitalising the title, [https://xkcd.com/about#strunk-and-white according to] the author.
* '''in ''[[The Order of the Stick|
** capital letters intrigue mungu.
** eric greenhilt too. "hi roy! wanna play blocks with me?"
* ''[[Damaged Tape|damaged tape]]'' used to be titled in all lowercase, before it moved to an official
* ''[[Achewood|achewood's]]'' roast beef speaks like this dogg complete with no punctuation because he is hella quiet and subdued very much a defining characteristic
* the inhabitants of ''[[
* ''[[
* davan in ''[[Something
* ickle's name from ''[[My Milk Toof|my milk toof]]'' is always spelt in lowercase to exaggerate his size.
* alda henning from the ''[http://beesbuzz.biz/d/20101018.php breeder]'' arc in ''[[unity]]'', who only capitalizes the name of her mistress
** also, the cartoonist goes by an all-lowercase "fluffy," although this is claimed more to be for typographic purity.
* [http://www.metroid2002.com/ this] famous ''[[
* sloshy from "[[Homestar Runner|homestar runner]]" uses this in their logo.
* indie developer [
* mr.coconut, the [[neopets]] editorial's most recent meme.
* as a result of originally being forum names, a number of [[Let's Play|
* [[YouTube|youtube]] video captions generated using their "transcribe audio feature" are often like this.
* the [[
== [[Real Life|real life]] ==
* herbert bayer, from the famous german bauhaus school of design, banned the use of uppercase letters in school materials in 1925 ("we only use small characters because it saves time. moreover, why have 2 alphabets when one will do? why write capitals if we cannot speak capitals?"). the most iconic "bauhaus" typeform is based on his "[
▲* herbert bayer, from the famous german bauhaus school of design, banned the use of uppercase letters in school materials in 1925 ("we only use small characters because it saves time. moreover, why have 2 alphabets when one will do? why write capitals if we cannot speak capitals?"). the most iconic "bauhaus" typeform is based on his "[http://www.type.nu/bayer/univer.html universal]" typeface.
* anyone whose typewriter or computer keyboard has <s>a broken shift key</s> two broken shift keys and a broken caps lock key. or anyone who just doesn't care about grammar. there are [[Grammar Nazi|people who don't look too kindly on that kind of behavior]], of course.
* social media researcher [
* porn star jessica drake signs her name like this.
* high school debate personality jon sharpe's name.
* [[Serial Killer|serial killer]] ted bundy always signed letters like this: "peace, ted"
* a whole lot of internet forum users. sometimes inverted by having every letter capitalized like [[w:Title
* the
** also, the
* officially, the "it's a small world" attraction at [[Disney Theme Parks|disney theme parks]] is "properly" spelled with all lowercase letters. it's still frequently referred to using capitalization though, even by disney themselves.
* some grammar textbooks for grade school kids will have exercises with the directions to rewrite sentences written like this with properly capitalized words.
* many transcriptions of latin and greek texts use only lower-case letters. this is because the original texts in the classical period inverted this trope - they had no capital or lower case distinction, and everything was capitalized. as it is much easier on the eyes to read all lower-case letters
** original texts in greek minuscule and roman-era latin cursive (to a lesser extent than greek, as many of the letterforms are too different from their modern counterparts to be recognisable) play this trope straight, however.
* elementary school students learning cursive are usually taught lowercase letters first, resulting in this when they attempt to write names or sentences in cursive before finishing the unit.
* the guardian newspapers title is written like this, [[Private Eye|along with the rest of the paper]].
* [[Zachary Quinto|zachary quinto]] writes his rare blog postings and his twitter in all lowercase letters. sometimes [[Wall of Text|without paragraph breaks]], as well.
* christopher poole (
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