I was talking to a team member the other day about the pros and cons of using sentence case or title case in headings.
Quick refresher:
Sentence case is when you only capitalise the first letter of the first word in a heading – like you would in a sentence. Proper nouns also have a capital.
With title case you capitalise the first letter of each word.
This Is Title Case.
Even though there isn’t a hard and fast rule over which style is better for the web, my personal preference is for sentence case. Here’s why:
- There is some evidence to show that the use of capital letters slows the ability for people to scan content – it breaks the flow.
- Sites that use title case often use it inconsistently. Sometimes You Get This. But Sometimes you Get This. Sentence case is far easier to teach, implement and apply quality control. (Great if you’ve got a decentralised authoring model.)
- Breadcrumbs in sentence case are far easier to scan – you can easily see the different levels of navigation. For example: Home > About us> Corporate profile > Management team.
- If you do a lot of work for government or universities, there is a trend towards minimal capitalisation for all publishing – a style that they carry to the web.
What does everyone else think?
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I vastly prefer sentence case. I think it looks a LOT prettier, and I agree with you, I think it breaks the flow.
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Thanks Sean – hey, I like your new site!
Cheers
Sally
Interesting. You support your case for sentence case well.
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Thanks Dana
I think it’s also from years of frustration as a web editor seeing title case abused!
Cheers
I wasn’t convinced till I read ” Sometimes You Get This. But Sometimes you Get This.”
All my arguments for the title case were silenced because when using title case I often have to keep my eyes open for it’s proper use.
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Thanks Samar. I guess my point of view comes from many years of editing websites, and the mish-mash use of title case! Cheers.
Interesting. I prefer the look of Title Case myself. Now maybe that’s just a “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” thing or maybe not. I mean there’s a reason why copywriters use title case in their writing right?
I can’t find any specific advice from Copyblogger on it but Brian does have a series of posts teaching us the art of title writing all while making extensive (and consistent) use of title case.
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Hi Marc
Thanks for the comment.
Yes, personal preference does come down to it – and many sites do make good, consistent use of title case (Copyblogger is one of my faves). Title case is the traditional style for newspaper headlines and naturally has been carried across to the web – so yes there are a heap of copywriters out there who still use title case.
I think the big trend for sentence case has come from larger organisations (government, large educational bodies) who like to write for a low reading age (because that’s a lot of the target audience). Sentence case is familiar, easy to scan, and easy to implement. I’m won over
So maybe we agree to disagree?
I had no idea on the low reading age market, thanks for the insight.
Agree to disagree we shall. I’ve been brought up with Title Case so my hardwired brain actually finds them easier than sentence case to scan.
Hi, I’ve seen evidence “that the use of capital letters slows the ability for people to scan content” but thats only for ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
ALL CAPS looks like you are screaming and is usually a bad idea ( )
Are the evidence you are referring to based on Start Case / Title Case or ALL CAPS?
I agree with your observation in breadcrumbs. The other 2 points don’t have that much wight in my opinion.
I’m all for sentence case. I think it scans better, it’s easier to use, and it feel less self-important than title case.
Totally agree, thanks for stopping by Catherine
I am bugged that we don’t have consistent use of capitalization on our site. We just had a debate on whether to use sentence case or title case for our site, so I looked online and found your post! I am convinced. Using sentence case makes it so much easier to enforce consistency.
That’s excellent Karen! I’m glad I was able to help. On large sites (like yours), the worst thing that you can do is be inconsistent. So whatever you decide, just make sure you have the support in place so that the style is followed by all of your authors.
Cheers
Hi Sally,
I was just googling this issue to have some documentation to back up my opinion that sentence case should be used and this article was the top result! Nice work! (and I totally agree).
Miranda
Hi Miranda
I have to say this is one of my most popular posts. We also continued the discussion over at http://www.snobs.com.au/2009/08/03/punctuation101-title-or-sentence-case/#comments.
Thanks for stopping by
Title case is very ackward. You said that proper nouns also have a capital in the title case. But there’s more to it. Words like ‘for’ and ‘by’ and ‘a’ and ‘an’ and ‘the’ and such have to be written lowercase in a title case.
Example of a correct title case: Young Girl Attacked by a Ferocious Dog
I agree with you and prefer sentence case myself as well.
Agree totally with your points re sentence case.
One other benefit is that capitalised brand names and proper nouns are more prominent in sentence case headings, which I think makes it easier for the reader to glean meaning from the sentence (especially with the scanning/skimming habits of online reading).
Note: UK and Australian news sites typically use sentence case headlines
You’ll probably find that most US newspapers also use sentence case for headings too.
Check out the following:
San Diego Union-Tribune
San Francisco Chronicle
Boston Globe
USA Today
Philadelphia Inquirer
Los Angeles Times
Dallas Morning News
Denver Post
I’d be very interested to know if there is peer-reviewed research on the topic. I remember reading once (but not sure where) that capital letters do interrupt the flow as they are signifiers of importance, and the eye pauses to allow the brain to focus on what that importance is.
I also find it aesthetically more pleasing to use sentence case
Hi Brian
It’s an interesting topic for sure. When I first wrote this post, the general consensus was that capital letters did slow down reading. Since then I’ve read that ALL CAPS slows down reading, but title case doesn’t (or it’s such a small reduction that it’s hardly worth mentioning). The human brain still recognises the shapes of the words.
Susan Weinschenk has an article about it on her website: It’s a Myth That All Capital Letters Are Inherently Harder to Read.
Even so, I still prefer sentence case, and advocate it for my clients. From a consistency point of view it’s much easier to manage, and I personally think it looks better.
Cheers
i wanted to know whether prepositions in title case need to be in capital letters or small letters.
for example:
As of Date / As Of Date
Engagement as of Date / Engagement As Of Date
Abraham, the prepositions need to be in small letters.
Actually, that isn’t set in stone. I’ve seen title case rules which have all words start with a capital, and some which don’t capitalise prepositions. That’s why it’s such a hard guideline to follow. There’s a good breakdown of different variations of title case at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Headings_and_publication_titles
thanks Snappy, thats an excellent informative reference material..
Interesting. I do a lot of clerical work both on and off of the computer, and I find the use of title case far easier to read. I can much more easily locate and remember a title that was written with the important words capitalized than one that was written as a sentence.
Hi Carlin
A lot of it is personal preference (and I have nothing against title case). From my perspective sentence case is easier to maintain when you need to have material consistent across channels. Especially when you have multiple authors.
Cheers
Sally
Sentence case is preferred in British English, and there are practical reasons why. Avoiding confusion is the main one.
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There are probably better examples, but I think this gives the idea.
Ha, love the example.
So, who originally adopted title case, and why? Maybe traditional typographers, because it makes headings stand out more from body text.
They had some sound design concepts.
Hi Sandro
I’m not sure. So many of these elements evolve over time (and different styles come in and out of fashion).
You are right, sentence case it is for me too. It is easier to maintain consistency
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