Template:Smallcaps/doc

{{Smallcaps}} will display the lowercase part of your text as typographical small caps.

This template should be used sparingly, as markup should be kept simple. Ideally, this template should only be used by templates. In particular, it should not be used for any of the following:

• Name/surname disambiguation; using capitalisation for this purpose is uncommonly-used in English-speaking territories.
• Markup up acronyms; standard capital letters should be used.
• All-caps trademarks; these should be presented in regular title case.

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. This can be seen as a problem, solved with {{sc}}.

Code

{{Smallcaps|Your Text in 4004 bc}}

Displayed

Your Text in 4004 bc

Pasted

Your Text in 4004 bc

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 ı i, although the language is set to Turkish.

Code examples

	Code	Display (screen)
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|The ''Name'' of the 2<sup>nd</sup> Game}}	The Name of the 2nd Game
Template:Y	Leonardo {{Smallcaps|DiCaprio}} (born 1974)	Leonardo DiCaprio (born 1974)
Template:Y	José {{Smallcaps|Álvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga}}	José Álvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|Nesbø, Vågen, Louÿs, Zúñiga, Kabaağaçlı}}	Nesbø, Vågen, Louÿs, Zúñiga, Kabaağaçlı
When your text uses an = sign:
Template:N	{{Smallcaps|You and Me = Us}}	{{{1}}}
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|You and Me &#61; Us}}	You and Me = Us
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|You and Me {{=}} Us}}	You and Me = Us
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|1=You and Me = Us}}	You and Me = Us
When your text uses a template:
Template:N	in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's {{Green{{!}}Green}}}} forever	Green}} forever
Template:Y	in {{Smallcaps|1=Fiddler's {{Green|Green}}}} forever	in Fiddler's Green forever
Template:Y	in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's {{Green|Green}}}} forever	in Fiddler's Green forever
Template:Y	{{Green|1=in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's Green}} forever}}	in Fiddler's Green forever
Template:Y	{{Colors|green|yellow|3=in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's Green}} forever}}	in Fiddler's Green forever
When your text uses a | pipe:
Template:N	{{Smallcaps|Before|afteR}}	Before
Template:N	{{Smallcaps|1=Before{{!}}afteR}}	afteR
Template:Y	{{Smallcaps|Before&#124;afteR}}	Before|afteR
When your text uses a link:
Template:N	[[{{Smallcaps|Mao}} Zedong]]	[[Mao Zedong]]
Template:Y	[[Mao Zedong|{{Smallcaps|Mao}} Zedong]]	Mao Zedong

Template:Sc/doc/Smallcaps and sc

Reasons to use small caps

Small caps are useful for encyclopedical and typographical uses including:

To lighten ALL-CAPS words or pronounceable acronyms

• The biblical "Lord" (instead of LORD or Lord) or "Lord God" as written in some Bibles
• The acronyms Unesco (instead of UNESCO or Unesco) or Unicef
• The trademark Time (instead of TIME or Time)

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

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

To disambiguate Eastern surnames and names at a glance

• Most Chinese names and Korean names retain their surname-first order:
  • Mao Zedong fought Chiang Kai-shek
  • The movie Oldboy by Park Chan-wook starring Choi Min-sik was not seen by Kim Il-sung
• Most Japanese names are reversed in the West, but not all:
  • (Akira Kurosawa or Motojirō Kajii are usually westernized)
  • But Matsuo Bashō, Ono no Komachi, Kaga no Chiyo (haiku poets known under their given name)
  • But Edogawa Ranpo (kept due to wordplay "EdgarA–llanPoe) vs. Ranpo Edogawa (some modern uses)
• Burmese names ignore the concept of forename/surname, but are adapted in the West:
  • Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of General Aung San ("Daw" is honorific, her name take 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 ("Mister Nu"), AKA Thakin Nu ("Master Nu")

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 doesn't work at least in Internet Explorer 5 and 6, which are still fairly common browsers.)

See also

Alternative template that rewrites the output (copy-paste will get the small-caps as all-caps):

• {{sc}} – small caps output

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

• {{Nocaps}} – lower case display
• {{Smallcaps}} – small caps display
• {{Allcaps}} – upper case 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