Capitals are too strong to be used with Arabic numerals. This fault of proportion is increased by the custom of casting Arabic numerals on an en body for table work, making them only half as thick as the type. Full capitals may be used with full figures the width of an ordinary letter. Condensed capitals may be used with en body numerals.

If old-style capitals and figures are required in the same line use figures about one-half larger in body than the capitals and justify them to the line.

It is this difficulty in combining capitals and Arabic numerals in the same line that causes the extensive use of Roman numerals in chapter numbers, numbers of other headings, dates on title pages, and the like.

When a large initial three or four lines high is used for the first letter of a new chapter, large capitals are sometimes used, although such usage is not free from the reproach of looking too much like newspaper advertising. When this initial is a two line letter it should be in alignment with the small capitals of the upper line and the base line of the text letter of the lower line.

Care should be taken not to compact capitals. Use wider leading and broader spacing than for lower-case; for example, where you would use one lead between lower-case lines you should use two or three between lines of capitals. Capitals occupy more of the type-body than lower-case letters and consequently words or lines set entirely with capitals need wider spacing and leading than the lower-case to make composition readable. When lines of roman capitals are set solid or single-leaded the en-quad will usually be enough space between words especially if the words are short; but for wide-leaded lines and head-lines double spaces (two three-to-em) will be needed. A head-line of round, open capitals may even need em-quad spaces. Wide letter words require wide spaces and words of thin or condensed letters require thin spaces.

Words which begin or end with A Y L V W T may need spaces a little less than those with H I M, etc. In small types the inequalities in white space beside or between combinations like L Y A T W and letters with regular shape like H I M N, may not be readily noticed, but in large sizes of capitals these differences are greatly increased and will often make unequal white spaces in a line with uniform metal spaces. In some styles of types a line may need unequal metal spaces in order to space the words evenly.

(Marks indicate insertion of spaces.)

This line has en-quads between the words, but the forms
of L and T make the white space greater than
between the first and second words.

This line has an en-quad in first space and three-to-em
in the second, with hair-spaces between some
letters of the words. So, also, it will often be necessary to insert pieces of paper, card, or thin leads between the letters of a word in large display, in order to make them evenly spaced, as shown in these examples:

(Marks indicate insertion of spaces.)

This differential spacing in a line of capitals will also be required in a line having abbreviations or initials. The following line, spaced with en-quads throughout, has unnecessarily wide spaces between the initials:

Spaced with four-to-em in the last three places, it is improved:

Capitals used as initials of titles and for other abbreviations, with the accompanying periods, should be thin-spaced or set close together, as shown in the second of these examples:

Two or more lines of capitals of the same size should be spaced as nearly alike as possible. These three lines are so disproportionately spaced that they are not pleasing:

The squaring up is arbitrary and strained. The lines are better like this:

But if it is necessary to square up lines and no additional words or letters can be inserted the short line may be filled with florets or other characters which should not be bolder than the type itself and should be of a style to harmonize with it as nearly as possible.

The extra wide spacing of words set in capitals, as in head-lines and running-heads, should be avoided by the young compositor; there are places where it may be unobjectionable but it will require good judgment and some experience to prevent such lines making the page look freakish or amateurish. In jobbing, advertisement, and display work, capitals are used more freely than in plain reading matter. In book work the practice is to use capitals more freely than in newspaper composition. A study of the reading columns of daily newspapers will discover that capitals are used very sparingly and words are “kept down” in many cases which in more formal book and pamphlet work would be capitalized.

In advertisements, announcements, and circular letters, words are often capitalized for distinction or emphasis, as in these examples:

Precise rules for the use of capitals cannot be given for work of all kinds. Their insertion or omission will be governed greatly by the subject matter and the style of treatment desired by the proof-reader or the customer and the compositor’s duty will not go further than to maintain some consistency in their use in each piece of work. When he has copy in which capitals are used as in the following example he will be expected either to discard all capitals except at the beginning of the sentences or to capitalize the words as in the second example:

In lines of large display, like head-lines, set in capitals and lower-case, all the important words should begin with capitals. Unimportant words, such as of, the, by, for, but, in, etc., except when they are at the beginning of the displayed phrase, are not capitalized.

Notice to the Public
The Best is the Cheapest
A Great Bargain in Hats
By Right of Conquest
For Love and Honor

A line of capitals containing an abbreviation or other short word should have capitals throughout when possible, as in the second form of these examples:

JOHN SMITH, Jr. JOHN SMITH, JR.
ROBINSON & Co. ROBINSON & CO.

In advertisement display lines like the following are permissible:

Combinations of different sizes and styles of types are also common and serve their purpose properly, as in this style, often used in billheads, etc.

to THOMAS W. ABBOTT, dr.
In account with FRANK ABBOTT Combinations of large and small capitals and lower-case like the following are, however, not approved:

The words in small capitals as well as the word in lower-case should begin with large capitals, like this:

When lines of capitals are used in books and pamphlets, for headings and display, they should be used consistently—that is, all headings of a similar kind should be alike in any piece of work, and not one heading in capitals and another in lower-case. The composition of a title page is more pleasing when its chief lines are in one style of letters, giving a harmonious effect. When lines of capitals and lines of lower-case are interspersed in a page an appearance of confusion is liable to be the result.