# Fine, so I don't know what color the dress is. But at least I can read this. Can you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 8, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499 "2015-03-08T03:35:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/1 "2015-03-08T03:35:47Z")
[Link](http://cdn.gagbay.com/2012/02/7h15_m3554g3-38086.jpg) This wasn’t even a challenge for me. Can some people really not read this? I’m not trying to snark on those who can’t (Personally, I don’t believe one’s inability to read it has anything to do with one’s intelligence.), I just think it’s interesting how the brain works. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/2 "2015-03-08T03:44:14Z")
17 l00k5 l1k3 l3375p34k. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/3 "2015-03-08T03:45:23Z")
f y cn rd ths, itn tyg h myxbl cd. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/4 "2015-03-08T03:51:46Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > f y cn rd ths, itn tyg h myxbl cd. Uh… huh? But, yeah, I could “read” the linked “text” (so to speak) just fine. Ugly as hell, and it hurts the brain in weird kinds of ways. But it was easier to wade through than Finnegan’s Wake! ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/5 "2015-03-08T03:52:06Z")
[Meihem In Ce Klasrum](http://www.angelfire.com/va3/timshenk/codes/meihem.html) did it beter. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/6 "2015-03-08T03:52:07Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > [Link](http://cdn.gagbay.com/2012/02/7h15_m3554g3-38086.jpg) > > This wasn’t even a challenge for me. Can some people really not read this? > > I’m not trying to snark on those who can’t (Personally, I don’t believe one’s inability to read it has anything to do with one’s intelligence.), I just think it’s interesting how the brain works. I don’t think the question is whether you can read it–the question is whether you’ve got a good immune system against mind-viruses. This one chooses a classic vector. It gives a trivially-easy puzzle, suggests it’s much harder than it is, compliments your intelligence, and then asks for you to forward it to other people. As long as folks think it shows their intelligence to forward it, they’ll do so, propagating the mind-virus. All that said, yeah, it’s interesting that folks can read it, in the sense that it mixes a traditional font with a nontraditional font, and we can decipher nontraditional fonts pretty easily. The similar messages that mix up letters and are still readable are, I think, even more interesting: msesgaes lkie tihs, for eaxplme, weehr bgeninng and ednnig ltetres saty the smae, but mdilde ltetres are srcmalebd. They take a little more work to read but are way more legible than I’d think they’d be. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/7 "2015-03-08T03:53:16Z")
“W17H 0U7” should be one word, not two. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/8 "2015-03-08T09:17:52Z")
Why doesn’t the 7 have the cross-hatch in it? It’s easy once you see it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/9 "2015-03-08T10:41:46Z")
The stuff in the link provided by the OP is not really clever nor does it show any particular thing about reading or processing written English. That’s because the substitutions are carefully selected. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/10 "2015-03-08T11:11:33Z")
Great. And it took me about a minute to figure “53RV35” out from context… ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/11 "2015-03-08T16:25:47Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > f y cn rd ths, itn tyg h myxbl cd. > [@Trinopus](#): > > Uh… huh? It’s a spoof of an old advertising campaign for secretarial school: “f y cn rd ths, y cn gt a gd jb.” ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/12 "2015-03-08T16:28:39Z")
Yep… What prize do I get?? I can also read LOLspeak… oddly enough I can not write it…strange,that. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/13 "2015-03-08T20:41:38Z")
No sweat. Took me maybe 10 % longer than plain English. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/14 "2015-03-09T01:13:11Z")
Once my eyes hit the third line, I could go back and read it from the beginning nearly as fast as I could English. But I have the advantage of having been drinking. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/15 "2015-03-09T01:18:40Z")
I read it fine from the get-go, but I have the advantage of being a huge nerd. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/16 "2015-03-09T01:26:38Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > [Link](http://cdn.gagbay.com/2012/02/7h15_m3554g3-38086.jpg) > > This wasn’t even a challenge for me. Can some people really not read this? > > I’m not trying to snark on those who can’t (Personally, I don’t believe one’s inability to read it has anything to do with one’s intelligence.), I just think it’s interesting how the brain works. The puzzle is trivially easy because of the way most (not all) literate humans read English text, the relevant part is whether the reader is enough of a rube to be so proud of their awesomeness they were gulled into forwarding the message. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/17 "2015-03-09T14:46:45Z")
I got hung up on the first word of the second line then breezed thru the rest no problem. Still not sure what it’s supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/18 "2015-03-09T15:12:22Z")
To me, it reads “Server not found.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/19 "2015-03-09T19:52:26Z")
“I cdn’uolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg: the phaonmneel pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rseearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.” ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499/20 "2015-03-09T19:54:22Z")
f y cn rd ths, y mght lk t lrn hbrw r rbc. Y’d b ntrl. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fine-so-i-dont-know-what-color-the-dress-is-but-at-least-i-can-read-this-can-you/714499.md?page=2)