smallcaps

Small caps, or small capitals, are a typographic feature in which certain letters—most often lowercase—are set as uppercase glyphs scaled to the height of small capitals. They produce a uniform, restrained appearance that preserves the texture of text without using full uppercase.

There are two main forms: true small caps and faux (or pseudo) small caps. True small caps use distinct glyphs designed at a reduced size and stroke weight to match the surrounding text; faux small caps are created by scaling or altering uppercase letters. Fonts vary in availability of true small caps; many offer only faux versions.

In digital typography, small caps are commonly accessed via font features such as OpenType 'smcp' (small capitals). Some fonts also provide 'c2sc' to convert capitals to small capitals. The choice affects legibility and rhythm, and designers select small caps for emphasis, for acronyms treated as words, or for stylistic consistency in running text and headings.

Historically, small caps arose in metal type to avoid excessive use of full caps while maintaining a strong typographic texture. With digital typography, they are widely supported in many fonts and are a standard tool in editorial and academic typesetting.