Usage

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{{Smallcaps}} will display the lowercase part of your text as typographical small caps. You can most especially use this template for name/surname disambiguation in lead sections, and all-caps words or pronounceable acronyms.

Code
{{Smallcaps|Your Text in 4004 bc}}
Displayed
Your Text in 4004 bc
Pasted
Your Text in 4004 bc

Your source text is not altered in the output, only the way it is displayed on the screen: a copy-paste of the text will give the small caps sections in their original form; similarly, an older or non-CSS browser will only display the original text on screen. This can be seen as a problem, solved with {{sc}}.

Notes

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  • Diacritics (å, ç, é, ğ, ı, ñ, ø, ş, ü, etc.) are handled. However, because the job is performed by each reader's browser, inconsistencies in CSS implementations can lead to some browsers not converting certain rare diacritics.
  • Use of this template does not generate any automatic categorization. As with most templates, if the argument contains an = sign, the sign should be replaced with {{Equal}}, or the whole argument be prefixed with 1=. And for wikilinks, you need to use piping. There is a parsing problem with MediaWiki which causes unexpected behavior when a template with one style is used within a template with another style.

Code examples

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Code Display (screen)
EnyaY {{Smallcaps|The ''Name'' of the 2<SUP>nd</SUP> Game}} The Name of the 2nd Game
EnyaY Leonardo {{Smallcaps|DiCaprio}} (born 1974) Leonardo DiCaprio (born 1974)
EnyaY José {{Smallcaps|Álvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga}} José Álvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga
EnyaY {{Smallcaps|Nesbø, Vågen, Louÿs, Zúñiga, Kabaağaçlı}} Nesbø, Vågen, Louÿs, Zúñiga, Kabaağaçlı
When your text uses an = sign:
Citakan:N {{Smallcaps|You and Me = Us}} {{{1}}}
Citakan:N {{Smallcaps|You and Me {{=}} Us}} You and Me = Us
EnyaY {{Smallcaps|You and Me &#61; Us}} You and Me = Us
EnyaY {{Smallcaps|You and Me {{Equals}} Us}} You and Me Citakan:Equals Us
EnyaY {{Smallcaps|1=You and Me = Us}} You and Me = Us
When your text uses a template:
Citakan:N in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's {{Green|Green}}}} forever in Fiddler's Citakan:Green forever
Citakan:N in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's {{Green{{!}}Green}}}} forever Green}} forever
EnyaY in {{Smallcaps|1=Fiddler's {{Green|Green}}}} forever in Fiddler's Citakan:Green forever
EnyaY {{Green|1=in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's Green}} forever}} Citakan:Green
EnyaY {{Colors|green|yellow|3=in {{Smallcaps|Fiddler's Green}} forever}} Citakan:Colors
When your text uses a | pipe:
Citakan:N {{Smallcaps|Before|afteR}} Before
Citakan:N {{Smallcaps|1=Before{{!}}afteR}} afteR
EnyaY {{Smallcaps|Before&#124;afteR}} Before|afteR
When your text uses a link:
Citakan:N [[{{Smallcaps|Mao}} Zedong]] [[Mao Zedong]]
EnyaY [[Mao Zedong|{{Smallcaps|Mao}} Zedong]] Mao Zedong

Citakan:Sc/doc/Smallcaps and sc

Reasons to use small caps

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Small caps are useful for encyclopedical and typographical uses including:

To lighten ALL-CAPS words or pronounceable acronyms
  • The biblical "Lord" (instead of LORD or Lord) or "Lord God" as written in some Bibles
  • The acronyms Unesco (instead of UNESCO or Unesco) or Unicef
  • The trademark Time (instead of TIME or Time)
To lighten ALL-CAPS surnames mandated by citation styles such as Harvard
  • Piccadilly has been compared to "a Parisian boulevard" (Dickens 1879).
  • Dickens, C., Jr (1879). "Piccadilly" in Dickens's Dictionary of London. London: C. Dickens.[1]
To disambiguate Western names and surnames at a glance
To disambiguate Eastern surnames and names at a glance

Technical

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Technically, the template merely wraps the standard:

<SPAN STYLE="font-variant:small-caps;"> ... </SPAN>

(The "font-variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase" has not been used because it doesn't work at least in Internet Explorer 5 and 6, which are still fairly common browsers.)

See also

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Alternative template that rewrites the output (copy-paste will get the small-caps as all-caps):

  • {{sc}} – small caps output

Templates that change the display (copy-paste will get the original text):

Magic words that rewrite the output (copy-paste will get the text as displayed):

  • {{lc:}} – lower case output of the full text
  • {{uc:}} – upper case output of the full text
  • {{lcfirst:}} – lower case output of the first character only
  • {{ucfirst:}} – upper case output of the first character only