Title Case Words Not Capitalized: What to Lowercase in Logo Taglines and Lettering
Which words stay lowercase in title case: articles, short prepositions and coordinating conjunctions. How the major style guides differ, and how to fix case in vector logo files.
Contents
In title case, the words that usually stay lowercase are articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor) and short prepositions (such as in, on, at, of, by). Everything else is capitalized, including short verbs and pronouns. The first and last words are always capitalized, whatever kind of word they are. The details shift between style guides, and that matters most for longer prepositions and the infinitive "to." This guide applies these rules to the text in a logo, mainly taglines, descriptors and secondary lines. It also covers what case decisions mean once that text is in a vector file.
The Core Rule
Title case capitalizes the major words in a phrase. Major words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns. Minor words are lowercase unless they open or close the phrase. Most US style guides treat these groups as minor:
- Articles: a, an, the
- Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or, nor (treatment of for, so and yet varies by guide and by how the word is used)
- Short prepositions: of, in, on, at, by, to, up, as
- The word "to" when it marks an infinitive, as in "Built to Last" (explicitly lowercase in Chicago and MLA)
These groups are the only reasons to lowercase a word. Word length alone is not one of them, and that explains most of the edge cases below.
Short Words That Still Get a Capital
Writers often lowercase words just because they are short. That is the most common title case error. Verbs are major words at any length, so "am," "is," "are," "be" and "was" are capitalized. "I Am Here" and "What It Is" are both correct. Pronouns such as it, he, we and its are also capitalized. So are adverbs and negatives such as "not" and "so" when it means "to that extent." The same applies when a preposition-like word is part of a phrasal verb: you write "Log In," "Set Up" and "Sign On," because the second word acts as an adverb there.
Longer Prepositions: Where the Style Guides Split
Prepositions such as "under," "about," "between" and "through" cause the most disagreement. Some guides set a length threshold, while others lowercase every preposition regardless of length. "Under" shows the split clearly: AP and APA capitalize it because it has four or more letters, and Chicago and MLA lowercase it because it is a preposition.
| Word group | AP | Chicago | APA | MLA |
| Articles (a, an, the) | lowercase | lowercase | lowercase | lowercase |
| Short prepositions (of, in, on, at) | lowercase | lowercase | lowercase | lowercase |
| Prepositions of four or more letters (under, about, with) | Capitalize | lowercase | Capitalize | lowercase |
| Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor) | lowercase | lowercase | lowercase | lowercase |
| Verbs of any length (is, am, be) | Capitalize | Capitalize | Capitalize | Capitalize |
| First and last word | Capitalize | Capitalize | Capitalize | Capitalize |
Neither approach is wrong. Pick one guide and apply it to every tagline, product line and lockup in the brand system. Mixed treatment, such as "Made Under the Sun" on one asset and "Made under the Sun" on another, looks like a mistake even when each version follows some guide.
How This Applies to Logo Typography
Wordmarks are usually brand names, and brand names keep their own styling no matter what title case would say. A company that writes its name in all lowercase, or with a capital in the middle, should appear that way in its logo. Title case rules apply mostly to the descriptive parts of a logo. These include taglines, location or service descriptors, and lockups for sub-brands or campaigns.
Many logos sidestep the question visually by setting secondary text in all caps or small caps. Even then, the underlying text still matters if it is live type. Design applications such as Illustrator and Figma offer case options that change how text displays without changing the characters you typed. Suppose a tagline is typed in title case and displayed in all caps. If someone later removes the display setting, the title case version reappears, so it should already be correct. Sentence case, where only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized, is a common alternative for longer taglines. It removes the minor-word question entirely.
Fixing Capitalization in a Vector Logo File
How easily you can correct capitalization depends on how the text is stored in the file. Three cases are worth separating:
- Live text: you can retype or recase it directly, but it needs the original font installed. Without that font, the application substitutes another typeface and the lettering changes.
- Outlined text: the letters have been converted to vector paths. Changing the case means resetting the words in the original font and outlining them again. You cannot toggle case on existing outlines.
- Raster images or previews: PNG or JPG files, or bitmaps embedded inside a vector file, cannot be corrected at the letter level. You need the editable source artwork.
A file's extension does not tell you which of these you have. An SVG, EPS, PDF or AI file may contain live text, outlines, an embedded raster image or a mix of these. Open the file and inspect the layers before you plan a correction. A common delivery practice is to supply outlined artwork for production and keep a separate master file with live text for future edits. Being able to download a logo file is not the same as having permission to change it. Recasing a tagline may require a license for the font, and changing a trademarked logo is a decision for the brand owner.
Quick Checklist for a Logo Tagline
- Capitalize the first and last words.
- Lowercase a, an and the in the middle of the phrase.
- Lowercase and, but, or and nor.
- Lowercase short prepositions; for longer ones, follow your chosen guide.
- Capitalize every verb, pronoun and adverb, however short.
- Keep brand names in their trademarked styling.
- Confirm whether the file holds live text, outlines or raster images before trying to edit it.
Note on scope: no specific logo, file or brand guideline was supplied for this article. The guidance above is based on general style-guide conventions and standard vector file behavior. For a particular brand, its own style guide takes precedence over any general rule.