Small Caps

Small Caps refers to a typographic style where lowercase letters are replaced with smaller versions of uppercase (capital) letters. These small capital letters are typically the same height as the font’s x-height (the height of a lowercase "x") and are used to create a more uniform and elegant appearance in text.

Key Characteristics:

• Uniformity: Small caps maintain the weight and proportion of the typeface, ensuring visual consistency.
• Not Scaled Down Capitals: True small caps are specially designed glyphs, not just reduced-size capital letters, which can appear too thin or disproportionate if simply scaled down.
• Usage: Commonly used in acronyms, headings, subheadings, and stylistic text elements such as in formal documents, book titles, or typographic logos.

Example:

• Regular: NASA
• Small Caps: ᴺᴬˢᴬ (appears as smaller uppercase letters)

Note:

Not all fonts include true small caps. In professional typesetting, using a font with true small caps (like Adobe Garamond or Minion Pro) is preferred over faking the effect by scaling down capital letters.