When to Use Title Case
Simple rules for capitalizing headings and titles.
Published by QuickUtilaUpdated 2 min read
Title Case and Sentence case are the two most common ways to capitalize headings. Neither is “correct” on its own — what matters is choosing one style and using it consistently.
What is Title Case?
In Title Case, the important words in a heading start with a capital letter: “How to Calculate the Difference Between Two Dates”. Style guides differ in the details, but most agree on these rules:
- Always capitalize the first and last words.
- Capitalize nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns — even short ones such as “Is” and “It”.
- Keep articles (a, an, the), short conjunctions (and, but, or) and short prepositions (of, in, on, to, at, by) lowercase.
- Capitalize the first word after a colon.
What is Sentence case?
Sentence case capitalizes only the first word and any proper nouns, exactly as in a normal sentence: “How to calculate the difference between two dates”. Many modern websites and apps prefer it because it is easier to read and to apply consistently.
When to use each style
| Use Title Case for | Use Sentence case for |
|---|---|
| Book, film and song titles | Body text and captions |
| Formal headlines and article titles | Interface labels and buttons |
| Headings in traditional publications | Headings in many modern websites and apps |
| Names of products and events | Long headings that read like sentences |
Consistency matters most
Mixing styles on the same page looks careless. Pick one style for each level of heading, write it down in a short style guide if you work in a team, and apply it everywhere.