Capitals

Capitals, by Frederick W.
Hamilton

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Capitals, by Frederick W. Hamilton
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Capitals A Primer of Information about Capitalization with some
Practical Typographic Hints as to the Use of Capitals
Author: Frederick W. Hamilton
Release Date: January 15, 2007 [EBook #20374]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAPITALS
***

Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Sigal Alon and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's Note:
1. Some examples does not make much sense in this text version (e.g.,

anything to do with small capitals). There is also an HTML version
where the examples are formatted to follow the typesetting of the
original.
2. Italicized text is rendered as text, bold text is rendered as =text=.

TYPOGRAPHIC TECHNICAL SERIES FOR APPRENTICES--
PART VI, NO. 34
CAPITALS
A PRIMER of INFORMATION ABOUT CAPITALIZATION WITH
SOME PRACTICAL TYPOGRAPHIC HINTS AS TO THE USE OF
CAPITALS
BY
FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, LL.D.
EDUCATIONAL DIRECTOR UNITED TYPOTHETÆ OF
AMERICA

PUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION UNITED
TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA 1918

COPYRIGHT, 1918 UNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA
CHICAGO, ILL.

CONTENTS
PAGE INTRODUCTION 1

USE OF FULL CAPITALS 4
SMALL CAPITALS 17
SUGGESTIONS AS TO TYPOGRAPHIC USE OF CAPITALS 22

CAPITALS

INTRODUCTION
A capital letter is a letter of formal shape. Capitals were originally
derived from the stiff and angular letters used in formal inscriptions.
Originally all writing was done in capitals. Later the scribes devised
less formal shapes for the letters, making use of lines more easily made
by brush or pen on papyrus, parchment, or paper. The capitals were
retained for certain uses but the less formal shapes were employed to
do the greater part of the work. These less formal letters have been
known by several names. They will be referred to here by that under
which they are known to modern printers, "lower-case."
A further modification of the letter came with the introduction of the
sloping, or italic letter. This received its name from its place of origin,
Italy. It was introduced by Nicholas Jenson, a printer of Venice, and
was an imitation of the handwriting of the Italian poet Petrarch.
Originally it was used only for the lower-case and was combined with
the older form of capital letters, called roman, also from the place of its
origin. Later the italic characteristics were given to capitals as well as
lower-case letters.
An ordinary font of book type contains five series of letters: full
capitals, small capitals, italic capitals (full size), roman lower-case, and
italic lower-case. The full capital, roman or italic, is larger than the
other letters of the font, every letter being as high as the lower-case
ascenders. The small capital is only as high as the lower-case round
letters. Larger capitals still are sometimes used as chapter initials and

the like.
It will be observed that the distinction between capital and lower-case
letters is one of form, not of size. The full capitals being much more
used than the small capitals and being larger than the other letters in the
font, the impression is common that the size is the distinguishing mark.
This erroneous impression has even crept into dictionary definitions.
The full capital, which will hereafter be called in this book simply the
capital, is used in combination with lower-case letters or with small
capitals in the same word. The small capital is not used in combination
with lower-case in the same word. We may print GEORGE
WASHINGTON, GEORGE WASHINGTON, GEORGE
WASHINGTON, or George Washington, but not George Washington.
In manuscript capitals are indicated by three lines under a word or letter,
[Symbol: triple line] and small capitals by two lines [Symbol: double
line]. A single line [Symbol: single underline] indicates that italics are
to be used.
Originally the writers of manuscripts used capitals for ornament and
variety in the text. They followed no rules but each writer was guided
by his own judgment and sense of beauty. As the use of capitals
gradually became systematized and reduced to rules, different systems
were adopted in different countries. The use of capitals varies greatly in
different languages. Attention will be mainly confined in this book to
the usages followed in the printing of English. Attempts to point out the
various differences to be found in German, French, etc. would only
confuse the young apprentice.
These rules grow out of a fundamental principle.
The purpose of capitals is to emphasize the words in which they are
employed. With the exception