What is uppercase?
Uppercase refers to the capitalized forms of letters, such as A, B and C, which stand taller than their lowercase counterparts and share a flat baseline and cap height. Standard written English uses uppercase for a handful of defined roles: the first word of a sentence, proper nouns, the pronoun "I," initials, acronyms and headlines in title case. Designers and writers also use uppercase stylistically, setting short moments such as labels, buttons, section tags and brand wordmarks in all caps: "NEW," "SALE" or "IBM." Past short display moments, extended passages of uppercase are harder to scan, so most style guides reserve all-caps treatments for brief spots rather than body copy.
Why does uppercase matter?
Uppercase matters because it is one of the strongest visual signals available in type, which makes it either a sharp design tool or a readability problem depending on how you apply it. A short all-caps label, button or badge can anchor a layout and lend a brand a confident, editorial feel, while a long all-caps paragraph slows readers down and can read as shouting. Picking where uppercase belongs across a product, website or piece of marketing, and how short those moments should be, keeps the brand looking designed rather than loud.
How do you use uppercase?
Use uppercase for proper nouns, sentence starts, acronyms and initialisms, following standard English conventions across every surface.
Reserve all-caps styling for short display moments, such as buttons, labels, category tags, navigation links or banners of one to three words.
Pair all-caps text with generous letter spacing and a readable weight, since the shapes of uppercase letters are less distinctive than lowercase and need room to breathe.
