Using capital letters when creating web content
You can use capital letters for:
- the first word of a sentence
- the name of a person – Joe Bloggs
- a place – town, city, village, district, country, venue
- brand names – Microsoft, Tesco, unless it starts with a lower case letter, for example - eBay
- organisations – Citizens Advice
- the full council name – Westmorland and Furness Council
- the name of a bill, act or piece of law – for example, Care Act
- header cells in tables
- committees - full committee name – for example, Policy Committee
- job titles – Chief Executive
- team names – Digital Team
- months, days of the week, holidays – for example, Easter and Christmas
- the title of a policy, strategy or report
When not to use capital letters when creating web content
You shouldn't use capital letters for:
- seasons – spring, summer, autumn, winter
- first letters of bullet points
- web page titles, headings and email addresses
Never use BLOCK CAPITALS – it’s hard to read as it removes the shape from the word. Many people will also read this as shouting and we’re a council, we shouldn’t be shouting.
If you want to emphasize information, think about adding a heading instead.
Capital letters are reputed to be 13% to 18% harder for users to read so avoid them.