Template:SMALLCAPS

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Template documentation (for the above template, sometimes hidden or invisible)

{{Smallcaps}} will display the lowercase part of your text as a soft format of typographical Template:Smallcaps.

This template should be avoided or used sparingly, as the Manual of Style advises that small caps should be avoided and reduced to one of the other title cases or normal case and markup should be kept simple.

Usage

Your source text is not altered in the output, only the way it is displayed on the screen: a copy-paste of the text will give the small caps sections in their original form; similarly, an older or non-CSS browser will only display the original text on screen.

Code  

{{Smallcaps|Your Text in 4004 bc}}

Displayed

Template:Smallcaps

Pasted  

Your Text in 4004 BC

This template is therefore intended for the use of caps as a typographic style, such as rendering family names in bibliographies in small caps to distinguish them from given names. It should not be used for acronyms or abbreviations which are supposed to be capitalized regardless of style. For such cases, use {{Smallcaps all}}.

Notes

• Diacritics (å, ç, é, ğ, ı, ñ, ø, ş, ü, etc.) are handled. However, because the job is performed by each reader's browser, inconsistencies in CSS implementations can lead to some browsers not converting certain rare diacritics.
• Use of this template does not generate any automatic categorization. As with most templates, if the argument contains an = sign, the sign should be replaced with {{}}, or the whole argument be prefixed with 1=. And for wikilinks, you need to use piping. There is a parsing problem with MediaWiki which causes unexpected behavior when a template with one style is used within a template with another style.
• There is a problem with dotted and dotless I. {{Lang|tr|{{Smallcaps|ı i}}}} gives you Template:Lang, although the language is set to Turkish.
• Do not use this inside citation templates citation templates, or this template's markup will be included in the COinS metadata. This means that reference management software such as Zotero will store the markup. For example, if {{smallcaps}} is used to format the surname of Bloggs, Joe in {{cite journal}}, then Zotero will store the name as <span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Bloggs</span>, Joe. This is correct and incorrect COinS metadata.

Code examples

	Code	Display (screen)
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|The ''Name'' of the 2nd Game}}	Template:Smallcaps
Template:Y	Leonardo {{Smallcaps|DiCaprio}} (born 1974)	Leonardo Template:Smallcaps (born 1974)
Template:Y	José {{Smallcaps|Álvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga}}	José Template:Smallcaps
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|Nesbø, Vågen, Louÿs, Zúñiga, Kabaağaçlı}}	Template:Smallcaps
When your text uses an = sign:
Template:N	{{Smallcaps|You and Me = Us}}	Template:Smallcaps
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|You and Me = Us}}	Template:Smallcaps
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|You and Me {{=}} Us}}	Template:Smallcaps
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|1=You and Me = Us}}	Template:Smallcaps
When your text uses a template:
Template:N	in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's {{Green{{!}}Green}}}} forever	in Template:Smallcaps forever
Template:Y	in {{Smallcaps|1=Fiddler's {{Green|Green}}}} forever	in Template:Smallcaps forever
Template:Y	in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's {{Green|Green}}}} forever	in Template:Smallcaps forever
Template:Y	{{Green|1=in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's Green}} forever}}	Template:Green
Template:Y	{{Colors|green|yellow|3=in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's Green}} forever}}	Template:Colors
When your text uses a | pipe:
Template:N	{{Smallcaps|Before|afteR}}	Template:Smallcaps
Template:N	{{Smallcaps|1=Before{{!}}afteR}}	Template:Smallcaps
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|Before|afteR}}	Template:Smallcaps
When your text uses a link:
Template:N	[[{{Smallcaps|Mao}} Zedong]]	[[Template:Smallcaps Zedong]]
Template:Y	[[Mao Zedong|{{Smallcaps|Mao}} Zedong]]	[[Mao Zedong|Template:Smallcaps Zedong]]

Note that most of these uses are not sanctioned by the [[WP:Manual of Style] and should be avoided in article prose.

Reasons to use small caps

Small caps are useful for encyclopedical and typographical uses including:

To lighten ALL-CAPS surnames mandated by citation styles such as Harvard

• Piccadilly has been compared to "a Parisian boulevard" (Template:Smallcaps 1879).
• [[Charles Dickens, Jr|Template:Smallcaps, C., Jr]] (1879). "Piccadilly" in Dickens's Dictionary of London. London: C. Dickens.[1]

To disambiguate Western names and surnames at a glance

• Many Hispanic names are tricky to decompose:
  • [[Jorge Luis Borges|Jorge Luis Template:Smallcaps]], but [[Adolfo Bioy Casares|Adolfo Template:Smallcaps]] (both filed under "B")
  • [[José Álvarez de Bohórquez|José Template:Smallcaps, Marqués de los Trujillos]]
• And many Hispanic names are better known by their second surname:
  • [[Pablo Ruiz Picasso|Pablo Template:Smallcaps]], [[Federico García Lorca|Federico Template:Smallcaps]], [[Emir Rodríguez Monegal|Emir Template:Smallcaps]], [[José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero|José Luis Template:Smallcaps]]
• Many names (Martín, Miguel, Ramón, Tomás, etc.) can be either forename or surname:
  • [[Juan Martín Hernández|Juan Martín Template:Smallcaps]] vs. [[Rafael Martín Vázquez|Rafael Template:Smallcaps]] (two ball players)
• Hungarian names natively use the surname-first order:
  • [[Petőfi Sándor|Template:Smallcaps Sándor]] is usually westernized [[Sándor Petőfi|Sándor Template:Smallcaps]]

To disambiguate Eastern surnames and given names at a glance

• Most Chinese names and Korean names retain their surname-first order:
  • [[Mao Zedong|Template:Smallcaps Zedong]] fought [[Chiang Kai-shek|Template:Smallcaps Kai-shek]]
  • The movie Oldboy by [[Park Chan-wook|Template:Smallcaps Chan-wook]] starring [[Choi Min-sik|Template:Smallcaps Min-sik]] was not seen by [[Kim Il-sung|Template:Smallcaps Il-sung]]

Especially in Hong Kong and Macao, a Western given name may be added as well:

• [[Leslie Cheung|Leslie Template:Smallcaps Kwok-Wing]]

• Most Japanese names are reversed in the West, but not all:
  • ([[Akira Kurosawa|Akira Template:Smallcaps]] or [[Motojirō Kajii|Motojirō Template:Smallcaps]] are usually westernized)
  • But [[Matsuo Bashō|Template:Smallcaps Bashō]], [[Ono no Komachi|Template:Smallcaps no Komachi]], [[Kaga no Chiyo|Template:Smallcaps no Chiyo]] (haiku poets known under their given name)
  • But [[Edogawa Ranpo|Template:Smallcaps Ranpo]] (kept due to wordplay "EdgarA–llanPoe) vs. [[Ranpo Edogawa|Ranpo Template:Smallcaps]] (some modern uses)
• Burmese names ignore the concept of forename/surname, but are adapted in the West:
  • Daw [[Aung San Suu Kyi|Template:Smallcaps Suu Kyi]], daughter of General [[Aung San|Template:Smallcaps]] ("Daw" is honorific, her name takes part of his name)
• And some Burmese names are so short they need to retain an honorific prefix (U for Mister, Daw for Madam, Thakin for Master) which is confusable with a forename or a surname:
  • [[U Nu|U Template:Smallcaps]] ("Mister Template:Smallcaps"), a.k.a. [[Thakin Nu|Thakin Template:Smallcaps]] ("Master Template:Smallcaps")

To cite Unicode character names correctly without unwanted emphasizing

• Such names are required to be written in capitals by the Unicode standard. In running text, “U+022A Template:Smallcaps” is a less predominant alternative to “U+022A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON”.

Technical

Technically, the template merely wraps the standard:

<span style="font-variant:small-caps;"> ... </span>

(The "font-variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase" has not been used because it does not work at least in Internet Explorer 5 and 6, which are still fairly common browsers.)

Suppressing small caps

If you wish to suppress the display of small caps in your browser, as a logged in user, you can make an edit to your common.css reading

span.smallcaps { font-variant: normal !important; }

See also

Templates that change the display (copy-paste will get the original text):

• {{Allcaps}} – upper-case display
• {{Nocaps}} – lower-case display
• {{Smallcaps}} – small-caps display
• {{Smallcaps all}} – hard-formatted small-caps display

Magic words that rewrite the output (copy-paste will get the text as displayed):

• {{lc:}} – lower case output of the full text
• {{uc:}} – upper case output of the full text
• {{lcfirst:}} – lower case output of the first character only
• {{ucfirst:}} – upper case output of the first character only

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