Capitals | Page 6

Liberty and Union.
This use should be avoided except for advertising display, or job work.
We call attention to our Stock of Boots, Shoes, and Furnishings.

SMALL CAPITALS
The use of small capitals presents its own peculiar problems to the printer. The small capital has the form of the large capital but without its size and conspicuousness. The small capitals are ordinarily no taller than the round letters of the lower-case. They are usually on a smaller set, with a lighter face and obscured by more connecting lines. In many fonts of type they are really the weakest and least distinguished of all the five series. Wide enough to cover the body of the type fairly thoroughly in most letters and thus to reduce the apparent space between letters, without ascenders and without descenders, they are very monotonous and singularly ineffective when used in any considerable quantity. When used in masses it is at times even difficult to read them.
The use of small capitals is quite different from that of large ones. For the reasons just given they are not suited to display. For this purpose they are no better than italics, if as good. Owing to their lack of striking appearance and commanding quality they are not used for emphasis. Display and emphasis it will be remembered are the two principal uses of the full capital.
Small capitals are used more for variety than for display. They are commonly used for:
Side heads
Running titles
Catch lines of title pages when particular display is not desired.
They are sometimes used for the first word after a blank line, especially for the first word of a new chapter.
Long quotations of poetry are often printed with the first word in small capitals. In this, as in the preceding case, the whole word is printed in small capitals except the first letter which is a full capital.
Proper names standing at the beginning of a chapter, occasionally even of a paragraph, are sometimes spelled in capitals or small capitals. If small capitals are used the initials of the name are put in full capitals.
Until within a comparatively short time tables of contents were often set in small capitals. At the same time it was customary to give a fairly full synopsis of the contents of each chapter under the chapter head. The result was a very monotonous page, dull, dense, hard to read. It is much better and now more common to use small caps for the chapter heads and ordinary text type for abstracts, using dashes or dots to separate the phrases in the synopsis and beginning each phrase with a capital.
The following reproduction of a part of a page from the table of contents of DeVinne's Modern Methods of Book Composition shows this method of treatment.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I EQUIPMENT 1
Types...Stands...Cases...Case-racks.
II EQUIPMENT 39
Galleys and galley-racks...Compositors' implements Brass rules and cases for labor-saving rule and leads Dashes and braces...Leads...Furniture of wood and of metal...Furniture-racks...Quotations and electrotype guards.
III COMPOSITION 75
Time-work and piece-work...Customary routine on book-work...Justification...Spacing and leading Distribution...Composition by hand and machine Proper methods of hand work...Recent mannerisms.
IV COMPOSITION OF BOOKS 111
Title-page...Preface matter...Chapter headings and synopsis...Subheadings...Extracts...Notes and il- lustrations...Running titles and paging at head or at foot Poetry...Appendix and index...Initials...Headbands, etc.
Where chapter synopses are not given, ordinary text type may be used for the table of contents.
The following reproduction of the table of contents of DeVinne's Correct Composition shows this method of treatment.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Preface vii
I Spelling 5
II Abbreviations 33
III Compound Words 61
IV Figures and Numerals 76
V Italic 94
VI Capital Letters 108
VII Division of Words 128
VIII Small Capitals 145
IX Extracts and Letters 157
X Notes 171
XI Indention 182
XII Spacing 198
XIII Quotation-marks 209
XIV Subheadings 230
XV Punctuation 241
XVI Proof-reading 294
XVII About Copy 327
XVIII Errors of the Press 345
Appendix 359
Index 447
Small capitals are best for subheads when of not more than two lines. If the subheads are longer it is best to use lower-case.
Signatures and credits are often put in small capitals. It is usually, however, better to use italics for the purpose. There is no need of a dash to connect the name with the quotation. When two or more quotations from the same author are used as mottoes, with reference to the works from which they are taken or the occasion on which they were said, the name of the author may be put in small capitals in a separate line, the name of the book or speech in italics, and the occasion in smaller roman type.
Numerous signatures to a document or petition, such as the Mayflower Compact or the Declaration of Independence, are often set in columns using capitals for the initials and small capitals for the rest of the name. Full capitals are too large for the purpose.
We therefore, the Commissioners for the Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven, do also, for our several governments, subscribe unto these.
JOHN WINTHROP, Governor of the Massachusetts THOMAS DUDLEY THEOPHILUS