Writing
5 min read
May 10, 2025

Title Case vs Sentence Case: When to Use Each (With Examples)

Inconsistent capitalisation undermines professional credibility. Here's the exact rule for every style guide.

Title Case vs Sentence Case: When to Use Each (With Examples)

Title Case: Capitalise most words — "How to Compress Images Without Losing Quality"

Sentence case: First word + proper nouns only — "How to compress images without losing quality"

Style Guide Rules

  • AP Style (journalism): Title case for headlines. Skip articles, short prepositions, conjunctions.
  • APA Style (academic): Sentence case for article titles.
  • Web content: Sentence case increasingly preferred — more readable, less error-prone.
  • Why Web Content Should Use Sentence Case

    Leading tech companies — Linear, Vercel, Stripe, Notion — use sentence case for product copy. It:

  • Reads more naturally
  • Has no judgment calls about which prepositions to capitalise
  • Looks cleaner in UI elements
  • Use title case for: page <title> tags (appear in Google SERPs), navigation labels, formal document headings.

    Common Mistakes

  • Overcapitalising job titles: "The Sales Manager reported…" (wrong)
  • Random caps for emphasis: "Our Product is Best" (wrong — use bold)
  • All-caps: AVOID except for acronyms
  • Convert text instantly with our Case Converter — 9 conversion formats including camelCase and snake_case.

    Written by the GMC Tools team