Template:Smallcaps

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{{Smallcaps}} will display the lowercase part of most text as a soft format of typographical Template:Ifsubst.
For example: {{Smallcaps|Beware of Dog}} → Template:Ifsubst.

The template works for most scripts that have casing, with the exception of half of the Greek alphabet (namely the unaccented letters α β γ δ θ λ μ ρ σ (but not ς) φ χ ω). In addition, the accents in Greek ΐ ΰ are badly placed: Template:Sc1.

This template should be avoided or used sparingly in articles, 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 that markup should be kept simple.

Smallcaps should not be used for the abbreviations BC, AD, BCE, CE, etc., per MOS:ERA, even though they are used in the examples below.

Template:Em in small caps, use {{Smallcaps2}} (a.k.a. {{sc2}}) instead.

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|Utada}} Hikaru

Displayed

Template:Ifsubst Hikaru

Pasted

Utada Hikaru

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 {{Smallcaps2}}.

As of Template:MONTHNAME 2016, this template cannot be used in citation templates like {{Cite journal}} to small-cap author names or titles of works in citation styles that call for such typography. See "Notes", below for details.

Technical notes

• Diacritics (å, ç, é, ğ, ı, ñ, ø, ş, ü, etc.) are handled. However, because text formatting is performed by each reader's browser and fonts, 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}}}} may gives you Template:Ifsubst, although the language is set to Turkish, unless the font including localized glyphs for small caps variant.
• Do not use this inside Template:Cs1 or Template:Cs2 templates, or this template's markup will be included in the COinS metadata. This means that reference management software such as Zotero will have entries corrupted by 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 incorrect metadata. If the article that you are editing uses a citation style that includes small caps, either format the citation manually (see examples below) or use a citation template that specifically includes small caps in its formatting, like {{Cite LSA}}.
• This template will not affect the use of HTML character entities like  .
• Technically, the template is a wrapper for: font-variant: small-caps.
• A potential alternative CSS approach, font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;, has not been used because it did not work in Internet Explorer 5 and 6, and it is implemented inconsistently in others: it copy-pastes as the original text in Firefox, but as the altered text in Chrome, Safari, Opera, and text-only 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-caps: normal !important; }

Examples

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

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

Note that this template should not be used inside CS1 or CS2 citation templates, such as {{cite book}} or {{citation}}; see #Notes above for details and alternatives.

• Piccadilly has been compared to "a Parisian boulevard" (Template:Ifsubst 1879).
• [[Charles Dickens, Jr|Template:Ifsubst, 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:Ifsubst]], but [[Adolfo Bioy Casares|Adolfo Template:Ifsubst]] (both filed under "B")
  • [[José Álvarez de Bohórquez|José Template:Ifsubst, Marqués de los Trujillos]]
• And many Hispanic names are better known by their second surname:
  • [[Pablo Ruiz Picasso|Pablo Template:Ifsubst]], [[Federico García Lorca|Federico Template:Ifsubst]], [[Emir Rodríguez Monegal|Emir Template:Ifsubst]], [[José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero|José Luis Template:Ifsubst]]
• Many names (Martín, Miguel, Ramón, Tomás, etc.) can be either forename or surname:
  • [[Juan Martín Hernández|Juan Martín Template:Ifsubst]] vs. [[Rafael Martín Vázquez|Rafael Template:Ifsubst]] (two ball players)
• Hungarian names natively use the surname-first order:
  • [[Petőfi Sándor|Template:Ifsubst Sándor]] is usually westernized [[Sándor Petőfi|Sándor Template:Ifsubst]]

To disambiguate Eastern surnames and given names at a glance

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

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

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

• Most Japanese names are reversed in the West, but not all:
  • ([[Akira Kurosawa|Akira Template:Ifsubst]] or [[Motojirō Kajii|Motojirō Template:Ifsubst]] are usually westernized)
  • But [[Matsuo Bashō|Template:Ifsubst Bashō]], [[Ono no Komachi|Template:Ifsubst no Komachi]], [[Kaga no Chiyo|Template:Ifsubst no Chiyo]] (haiku poets known under their given name)
  • But [[Edogawa Ranpo|Template:Ifsubst Ranpo]] (kept due to wordplay with "Edgar Allan Poe") vs. [[Ranpo Edogawa|Ranpo Template:Ifsubst]] (some modern uses)
• Burmese names ignore the concept of forename/surname, but are adapted in the West:
  • Daw [[Aung San Suu Kyi|Template:Ifsubst Suu Kyi]], daughter of General [[Aung San|Template:Ifsubst]] ("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:Ifsubst]] ("Mister Template:Ifsubst"), a.k.a. [[Thakin Nu|Thakin Template:Ifsubst]] ("Master Template:Ifsubst")

To cite Unicode character names correctly without unwanted emphasizing.

• Such names are required to be written in capitals by the Unicode standard. Use {{Smallcaps2}}, not {{Smallcaps}}, for this: In running text, "U+022A Template:Smallcaps2" is a less visually distracting alternative to "U+022A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER O WITH DIAERESIS AND MACRON". Unicode names should not be represented in mixed case, e.g. as {{Smallcaps}}.

Comparison of the case transformation templates

Templatedata

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. Click here to see a monthly parameter usage report for this template in articles based on this TemplateData.

TemplateData for Smallcaps

Displays the lowercase part of inputted text as small caps

Template parameters

This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Text	1	Text to be rendered in small caps	String	required

See also

• {{Smallcaps2}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Smallcaps/doc. (edit | history)
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