How to Capitalize Hyphenated Words in Title Case for Logo Typography

Short answer: in title case, always capitalize the first part of a hyphenated compound. Under the widely used Chicago Manual of Style approach, you also capitalize every part after the hyphen unless it is an article, a preposition or a coordinating conjunction. That gives “Self-Employed,” “Twenty-First” and “State-of-the-Art.” The main exception is a prefix that cannot stand alone as a word, such as anti-, pre-, re- or non-. Chicago keeps the part after that kind of prefix lowercase unless it is a proper noun or proper adjective, so you get “Anti-inflammatory” and “Re-entry” but “Pre-Columbian.” Some other guides, including APA, capitalize both parts of a hyphenated major word. Pick one convention and apply it the same way everywhere the name or tagline appears.

What Title Case Covers in Logo Work

Title case means capitalizing the principal words of a phrase and lowercasing minor words such as articles, prepositions and coordinating conjunctions, apart from the first word. It is an editorial convention, not a law of typography. In logo work it applies to wordmarks (logos made mainly of set or drawn lettering), taglines, product names inside a lockup (a fixed arrangement of symbol, wordmark and other text) and the way a brand name is written in guidelines and supporting files.

A brand’s established spelling overrides general title-case rules. If an organization consistently writes its name as “Re-Entry Works” or “re-entry works,” the logo should follow that spelling, not a style guide. The rules below are for cases where no such decision exists yet, or where you are setting a descriptive tagline rather than a proper name.

The Rule, Element by Element

• First element: always capitalize it, whatever word it is.
• Later elements that are principal words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns): capitalize them, as in “Long-Term” or “Well-Known.”
• Later elements that are articles, prepositions or coordinating conjunctions: keep them lowercase in Chicago style, as in “All-in-One” or “Up-to-Date.”
• First element is a prefix that cannot stand alone: keep the next element lowercase in Chicago style, as in “Non-profit” or “Co-op,” unless it is a proper noun or adjective, as in “Pre-Columbian” or “Anti-American.”
• Hyphenated spelled-out numbers: capitalize both parts, as in “Twenty-Five.”
• Capitalize-everything approach: some guides and many house styles capitalize every element, as in “Anti-Inflammatory” or “All-In-One.” This is simpler to apply but differs visibly from Chicago in a few cases.

Phrase | Chicago-style title case | Capitalize-every-element approach

self-employed | Self-Employed | Self-Employed

state-of-the-art | State-of-the-Art | State-Of-The-Art

all-in-one | All-in-One | All-In-One

twenty-first | Twenty-First | Twenty-First

anti-inflammatory | Anti-inflammatory | Anti-Inflammatory

re-entry | Re-entry | Re-Entry

pre-Columbian | Pre-Columbian | Pre-Columbian

The two approaches only differ when a minor word or a bound prefix follows a hyphen. If your phrase has neither, both approaches give the same result, and you can move straight to the artwork.

When the Wordmark Is All Caps or Small Caps

Many logos are set entirely in capitals or small caps. In that case the visible artwork does not show the title-case choice. You still need to decide on it, because the same name will appear in mixed case in brand guidelines, alt text, file names and running copy, and those should match one approved spelling.

All-caps setting also affects the hyphen itself. In most typefaces the default hyphen sits at a height suited to lowercase letters, so between capitals it can look too low. Many OpenType fonts include case-sensitive forms, a feature that substitutes punctuation (including the hyphen) positioned to suit capitals. Turn on that feature if the font has it, or raise the hyphen manually by eye and keep the adjustment consistent across every lockup.

Use a Hyphen, Not a Dash

A hyphenated compound takes the hyphen character, the shortest of the three. An en dash is longer and normally marks ranges. An em dash is longest and marks a break in a sentence. Swapping in a dash for visual reasons changes what the text means, so if the hyphen looks too short or thin, adjust spacing, weight or position rather than replacing the character. A drawn custom connector is a design decision and should be recorded as such in the guidelines.

Applying the Decision to Vector Artwork

• 1. Confirm whether the brand already has an approved spelling for the name or tagline. If it does, use it and stop here on capitalization.
• 2. If not, choose a convention (Chicago-style or capitalize-every-element), apply it to every hyphenated compound and write the approved spelling down.
• 3. Set the text as live text (editable type that can still be retyped) in the master file.
• 4. Check the hyphen glyph: confirm it is the hyphen, enable case-sensitive forms for all-caps settings, and adjust kerning (the space between specific letter pairs) on either side of the hyphen so it neither touches nor floats away from the neighboring letters.
• 5. If the lockup stacks onto two lines, decide where the compound breaks. Typographic convention keeps the hyphen at the end of the first line, not at the start of the second.
• 6. Save the live-text master separately, then create the delivery version by converting text to outlines (turning each letter into vector paths so the artwork no longer depends on an installed font).
• 7. Deliver the outlined version, and keep the live-text master for future edits, since outlined letters can only be changed by retyping or redrawing them.

Verify the Result

• Spelling and capitalization in the artwork match the approved written spelling exactly.
• Every hyphenated compound in the lockup and tagline follows the same convention.
• The hyphen is a hyphen, not an en or em dash, and sits at a suitable height for the case it sits between.
• Spacing around the hyphen looks even at both large and small reproduction sizes.
• The delivered file contains outlined text, checked in the design application’s outline or wireframe view, not just assumed from the file extension. An extension alone does not prove that a file is fully vector, editable or cleared for reuse.
• The live-text master is archived alongside the delivery files.

Limits of This Guide

No client style guide, trademark filing or specific logo was supplied, so this guide relies on general editorial conventions. Style guides revise their rules between editions, and a brand’s registered or established spelling can differ from any of them. Where the exact form matters, for example for legal names or trademark use, confirm it against the organization’s own records and the current edition of the style guide it follows.