Letter type cases or case styles refer to how letters are presented, either as upper case (capital letters) or lower case. It is important for making things easy to read.

Traditional type cases

image courtesy of By Maggie McCain – Flickr: PB103474, CC BY 2.0

Originally, writing was all done in upper case or capital letters. The creation of a duplicate alphabet of lower case letters in the Middle Ages made writing faster. In 1439, the introduction of the printing press made the two cases more distinct. Printers had a metal block for each letter that they combined for actually printing. What we know as lower case letters were used more so were kept on the more accessible lower shelf. Capital letters were kept on the upper shelf. Thus, letters became known as upper and lower case.

Upper case

Only capital letters are used. FOR EXAMPLE, THIS SENTENCE IS TYPED IN UPPER CASE.

This is harder to read and is considered to be yelling in modern communications. I strongly recommend this is not used in business communications.

Lower case

Only lower case letters are used. this sentence is in lower case only, not even a capital to start the sentence.

While easier to read than upper case, it is harder for the reader to see the gaps between sentences so ideas blur a little. It can appear ignorant or lazy to not include capitals appropriately.

Title case

All important or functional words start with a capital letter. Here is an Example of a Sentence Written in Title Case – Although Some People Capitalise Every Word Not Just Functional Or Major Words.

My main concern with this is how long it takes to capitalise those functional words! I also find that it looks pretentious and provides no real value.

Sentence case

Sentence case is what we are used to seeing in books, newspapers, websites, magazines, and apps. Most sentences in this blog post are written in lower case letters, with capital letters just for proper nouns like Tash and the first word.

If you aim to use this, even if you occasionally get capital letter rules wrong, most people will find it easy to read and focus on the content rather than the writing and type case.

Modern type cases

With the evolution of content away from purely printed word, some other case styles have developed their own style rules. These cases are only used for specific purposes, rather than in general content, and become more specific for coding and programming.

Camel case

This type case evolved predominantly for nouns and product names where there is a mix of lower and uppercase within a word. It is generally a merging of words, losing the space between them but keeping the capital letters. So MasterCard, PlayStation, OneDrive, and even NaCl (Sodium Chloride or what we know as table salt) are all camel case.

It further developed into upper camel case or Pascal case where every included word starts with a capital letter and lower camel case. In lower camel case (or dromedary case), a lower case letter attached to the start of a word. Common examples are eBook, iPad, eBay and even lowerCamelCase.

Kebab case

This is for website addresses and is not used in general text. Kebab case is written in all lower letters and includes hyphens and slashes. For example, /starting-your-style-guide and /blog/category/monday-meanings/.

Snake case

Not used in general text, snake case is used for naming files. This type case helps identify where a file is kept. Snake case is always in lower case with words connected by underscores. Examples include ‘website_content_review’, ‘annual_report_outline’, and ‘blog_review_schedule’.