We are all familiar with standard capitalization rules such as first letter of a sentence and proper names. But there are many other forms of capitalization and case that can be used as design elements to add interest or draw attention.

1. Title Case
   This is where you capitalize the first letter of each word in a short section of text. This is typically seen in places like headlines or page titles, but it can also be used in logos, brochure design or other graphical elements where you want to draw attention to all the words individually. One variant of title case is where short, unimportant words like prepositions (of/to/from) and articles (the/an) are left as lower case.
2. All Upper Case
   This is pretty self-explanatory. For a given section of text, all letters are composed of standard upper-case characters. This might be used for section or column headings, or in some graphical element that is not part of the main flow of text. If used in-line, you should consider using small caps or petite caps (see below) instead.
3. All Lower Case
   Standard text always has some capitalization. By using all lower case, you violate the expectations of the reader, and force their brain to process the words differently. If used properly, this can be a powerful tool to draw attention. It can be especially useful in logos or other graphical elements to give a more modern or hip feel to a design.
4. Small Caps
   Most fonts will have a variation, known as “small caps”, in which lower case letters are represented with characters that look like upper case, but are sized to be near the height of normal lower case. In most Anglo-Saxon fonts, they are about 10% taller than lower case letters. In well-designed fonts, these are not just smaller versions of the normal upper case, but preserve the stroke weight of the other letters and are slightly wider to enhance readability. Small caps are often used for sections of text that would normally be all upper case, but would stand out too much and look out of place if full-sized caps were used.
5. Petite Caps
   Petit caps are similar to small caps, except they are the same height as lower case instead of being slightly taller. Since historically, word processing apps have not supported petit caps, many fonts just use the same characters for both small and petit caps. If you have an app that supports petit fonts, and you want to use it, you should choose a font that also supports it. Otherwise you will have to manually create it by scaling and kerning, which may sacrifice readability.
6. Drop Caps
   Drop caps, also known as initials, are a way of making the first letter of a paragraph or chapter stand out. Typically, initials are 2-4 times the height of normal letters and are sometimes quite ornate. They can be created with larger versions of the same font, a different font, or with a graphic. There are 3 typical variations of how they can be set with respect to the surrounding text (see graphic below):
   • Same baseline and left margin as surrounding text, but extending into the space above the paragraph.
   • Same left margin as the surrounding text, and sharing a baseline with one of the subsequent lines. Depending on the height of the initial, this could have it extending above the first line as well. This is the most typical form of drop caps.
   • In the left margin of the paragraph. There are several possible variations for vertical alignment, from extending above, to flush with the top, to somewhere in between.

Of course, once you know the standard way of using these case variants, you should feel free to break the rules to create new and interesting design elements. Just remember that in your marketing collateral design, there should always be a balance between readability and design. Otherwise, it may never get read, and your message will be lost.