Title case, sentence case and punctuation in titles

Small details change how a title feels. Capital letters and punctuation set the tone before anyone reads a word.

Writing · 4 min read

Title Case

Capitalising the main words (“Small Ideas. Big Possibilities.”) feels formal and polished. It suits editorial, business and quote-style designs.

Sentence case

Only the first word capitalised (“Small ideas, big possibilities”) feels friendly and modern. It’s a good default for tutorials and personal content.

ALL CAPS

Strong and attention-grabbing, but harder to read in more than a few words. Use it on display fonts like Anton and Bebas Neue, which are designed for it, and keep it to five words or fewer.

Punctuation that helps

Colons set up a promise (“Logo Design: 5 Mistakes to Avoid”). Question marks invite an answer. Full stops make short phrases feel confident (“Small Ideas. Big Possibilities.”). Dashes and brackets work for a tag at the end, such as “(Free Template)”.

Punctuation to skip

Multiple exclamation marks, ellipses at the end of every title and emoji strings. They shout, and shouting rarely earns trust.

Keep reading

Questions, ideas or a design you’d like to see?

Write to us and we’ll reply by email. You can also write directly to hello@itistitle.com.