Title Case vs Sentence Case: When to Use Each
A practical guide to the two most common capitalization styles in writing, blogging, and UI copy — with rules, examples, and edge cases.
Why capitalization matters
Capitalization is one of the smallest style decisions you make — and one of the most visible. A headline in the wrong case can make a professional article look like a rushed blog draft, or a friendly product tour feel like a legal notice.
The two dominant styles
Title Case capitalizes the first letter of each major word. Articles ("a", "an", "the"), short prepositions, and conjunctions stay lowercase unless they start the sentence.
Sentence case capitalizes only the first word and proper nouns, like a normal sentence.
When to use Title Case
- Book, film, and article titles
- Product names and marketing headlines
- Column headers in tables
- Formal navigation labels
When to use sentence case
- UI microcopy, buttons, tooltips
- Modern documentation
- Blog post subheadings
- Anything that should feel conversational
The quick rule
If it sounds like a title, use Title Case. If it sounds like a sentence, use sentence case. When in doubt, sentence case reads faster on screens.
Try both instantly with our Title Case Converter and Sentence Case Converter.
Title case is not one rule, it is several
"Title case" means different things depending on the style guide, which is why two people can capitalise the same headline differently and both be right.
- AP style capitalises words of four letters or more, plus the first and last word. Short prepositions such as "with" stay lowercase.
- Chicago style capitalises all major words and lowercases articles, coordinating conjunctions and prepositions regardless of length.
- APA style capitalises words of four letters or more in headings, and uses sentence case for the titles of works in reference lists.
Pick one and record it in your style guide. The specific choice matters far less than applying it consistently across a site.
The words that stay lowercase
Under most guides these remain lowercase unless they open or close the title: a, an, the, and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so, at, by, in, of, off, on, out, to, up, via. Two exceptions catch people out. A preposition used as an adverb is capitalised — "Log In" and "Set Up" are correct, because "in" and "up" are part of the verb. And the second half of a hyphenated compound is capitalised in Chicago style: "Self-Guided Tour".
Case on the web, specifically
Interfaces have drifted towards sentence case over the last decade. Apple, Google and Microsoft all now recommend sentence case for buttons, menu items, form labels and notifications, on the grounds that it reads faster and is easier to translate — many languages, German and French among them, have capitalisation rules that make word-by-word title case look wrong.
Headlines are the exception. Article titles, hero headings and card titles still commonly use title case, because it visually marks them as titles rather than sentences.
A quick decision guide
- Is it a sentence a person would speak? Use sentence case.
- Is it the name of a work, product or article? Use title case.
- Is it a UI control? Use sentence case.
- Is it a table header or a short label? Sentence case, unless the rest of the interface is title case.
- Is it shouting? Reconsider — ALL CAPS reduces reading speed and is announced letter by letter by some screen readers.
Accessibility and readability notes
Long stretches of capital letters remove the word-shape cues readers rely on, measurably slowing reading. All-caps text also loses meaning for people using screen readers when it consists of words that could also be acronyms. If you need emphasis, use weight or size rather than case.