Capital letters or majuscules (in the Roman alphabet: A, B, C, D, …) are also simply called capitals, caps or upper case; manual typesetters kept them in the upper drawers of a desk or the upper type case, keeping the more frequently used minuscule letters on the lower shelf or lower type case. A type case is a compartmentalized wooden box used to store Movable type used in Letterpress printing. This practice may date back to Johann Gutenberg. Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( 1398 &ndash February 3, 1468) was a German Goldsmith and printer who is credited
Most writing systems (such as those used in Arabic, and Devanagari) make no distinction between capital and lowercase letters (and, of course, logographic writing systems such as Chinese have no "letters" at all). A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. A logogram, or logograph, is a Grapheme which represents a word or a Morpheme (a meaningful unit of language Written Chinese comprises the written symbols used to represent Spoken Chinese and the rules about how they are arranged and punctuated Indeed, even European languages did not make this distinction before about 1300; both majuscule and minuscule letters existed, but a given text would use either one or the other.
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History
Historically, majuscules are divided into five eras:
- Greek majuscule (9th – 3rd century B. C. ) in contrast to the Greek uncial script (3rd century B. Uncial is a Majuscule script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek Scribes From the 8th century to the C. – 12 century A. D. ) and the latter Greek minuscule
- Roman majuscule (7th century B. C. – 4th century A. D. ) in contrast to the Roman uncial (4th – 8th century B. C. ), Roman Half Uncial, and minuscule
- Carolingian majuscule (4th – 8th century A. Uncial is a Majuscule script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek Scribes From the 8th century to the The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolings, or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family with its origins in the D. ) in contrast to the Carolingian minuscule (around 780 – 12th century)
- Gothic majuscule (13th and 14th century), in contrast to the early Gothic (end of 11th to 13th century), Gothic (14th century), and late Gothic (16th century) minuscules. Carolingian or Caroline minuscule is a script developed as a writing standard in Europe so that the Roman alphabet could be easily recognized
Usage
In alphabets with a case distinction, capitals are used for:
- Capitalization,
- Acronyms,
- Supposed better legibility, for example on signs and in labeling (but see Ascender), and
- Emphasis (in some languages). Capitalization (or capitalisation &mdash see spelling differences) is writing a word with its first letter as a Majuscule (upper case letter Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name An information sign is a very legibly printed and very noticeable Placard that Informs people of the purpose of an object or gives them Instruction on the A label is a piece of Paper, Polymer, Cloth, Metal, or other material affixed to a container or article on which is Printed Typography, an ascender is the portion of a letter in a Latin-derived alphabet that extends above the Mean line of a font. In Typography, emphasis is the exaggeration of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text&mdashto emphasise them
Capital letters were sometimes used for typographical emphasis in text made on a typewriter. However, long spans of text in all upper-case are harder to read because of the absence of the ascenders and descenders found in lower-case letters, which can aid recognition. Typography, an ascender is the portion of a letter in a Latin-derived alphabet that extends above the Mean line of a font. Typography, a descender is the portion of a letter in a Latin alphabet that extends below the baseline of a font. With the advent of modern computer editing technology and the Internet, emphasis is usually indicated by use of a single word Capital, italic, or bold font, similar to what has long been common practice in print. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks Capitals is a Serif Font composed entirely of Capital letters. In Typography, italic type /ɪˈtælɪk/ or /aɪˈtælɪk/ refers to cursive Typefaces based on a stylized form of calligraphic Handwriting. In Typography, emphasis is the exaggeration of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text&mdashto emphasise them When an acronym or initialism requires a string of upper-case letters, it is frequently set in small capitals, to avoid overemphasizing the word in mostly lower-case running text. Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name In Typography, small capitals (usually abbreviated small caps) are Uppercase ( capital) characters set at the same height as surrounding In electronic communications, it is often considered very poor "netiquette" to type in all capitals, because it can be harder to read and because it is seen as tantamount to shouting. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks Netiquette, a portmanteau of " network Etiquette " is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks ranging from In Typography, all caps (short for all capitals or all capitalized; often written as ALL CAPS) refers to text or a font in which Indeed, this is the oft-used name for the practice.
Capitalization is the writing of a word with its first letter in upper-case and the remaining letters in lower-case. Capitalization (or capitalisation &mdash see spelling differences) is writing a word with its first letter as a Majuscule (upper case letter A word is a unit of Language that carries meaning and consists of one or more Morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together and has a Phonetic In Typography, a grapheme is the fundamental unit in written language. Capitalization rules vary by language and are often quite complex, but in most modern languages that have capitalization, the first word of every sentence is capitalized, as are all proper nouns. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them In Linguistics, a sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words bearing minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it often preceded and followed Some languages, such as German, capitalize the first letter of all nouns; this was previously common in English as well. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States (See the article on capitalization for a detailed list of norms). Capitalization (or capitalisation &mdash see spelling differences) is writing a word with its first letter as a Majuscule (upper case letter
Other meanings
For paleographers, a Majuscule script is any script in which the letters have very few or very short ascenders and descenders, or none at all (for example, the majuscule scripts used in the Codex Vaticanus, or the Book of Kells). Palaeography, palæography ( British) or paleography ( American) (from the Greek grc παλαιός palaiós, The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl Vat, Vat gr 1209 Gregory-Aland no The Book of Kells (Leabhar Cheanannais (Dublin Trinity College Library MS A
See also
External links
- Codex Vaticanus B/03 Detailed description of Codex Vaticanus with many images. In Typography, all caps (short for all capitals or all capitalized; often written as ALL CAPS) refers to text or a font in which CamelCase (also spelled " camel case " and sometimes known as medial capitals) is the practice of writing compound words or phrases in which the The shift key is a Modifier key on a keyboard, used to type capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters In Orthography and Typography, letter case (or just case) is the distinction between Majuscule ( capital or upper-case Roman square capitals, also called inscriptional capitals, elegant capitals and quadrata, are an ancient Roman form of writing and In Typography, small capitals (usually abbreviated small caps) are Uppercase ( capital) characters set at the same height as surrounding The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl Vat, Vat gr 1209 Gregory-Aland no
- All-caps is harder to read
- Capitals, a Primer of Information About Capitalization With Some Practical Typographic Hints as to The Use Of Capitals by Frederick W. Hamilton, 1918, from Project Gutenberg
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