Editing Majuscule

[[Image:UPPER CASE - lower case.jpg|thumb|300px|Williamsburg eighteenth century press letters]]
'''Capital letters''' or '''majuscules''' [IPA pronunciation: /məˈdʒʌskjuls, ˈmædʒəˌskjuls/], in the [[Roman alphabet]] ''A'', ''B'', ''C'', ''D'', etc., may also be called '''capitals''', or '''caps'''. '''Upper case''', '''upper-case''', or '''uppercase''' is also often used in this context as synonym of capital.  Manual typesetters kept them in the upper drawers of a desk or in the upper [[type case]], while keeping the more frequently used [[Lower case|minuscule]] letters in the lower type case. This practice might date back to [[Johannes Gutenberg]].

Capital and small letters are differentiated in the Roman, [[Greek alphabet|Greek]], [[Glagolitic alphabet|Glagolitic]], [[Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic]] and [[Armenian alphabet]]s. Most [[writing system]]s (such as those used in [[Georgian alphabet|Georgian]], [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]], [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]], and [[Devanāgarī|Devanagari]]) make no distinction between capital and lowercase letters (and, of course, [[logogram|logographic]] writing systems such as [[Chinese writing system|Chinese]] have no "letters" at all). Indeed, even European languages did not make this distinction before about 1300; both majuscule and minuscule letters existed, but a given text would use either one or the other.

==History==
Historically, the majuscule glyphs preceded the minuscules, which evolved from the majuscules for use in [[cursive]] writing. In Western European writing they can be divided into four eras:
*Greek majuscule (9th – 3rd century B.C.) in contrast to the Greek [[uncial script]] (3rd century  B.C. – 12 century A.D.) and the later Greek minuscule
*[[Roman square capitals|Roman majuscule]] (7th century B.C. – 4th century A.D.) in contrast to the Roman uncial (4th – 8th century B.C.), [[Roman Half Uncial]], and minuscule
*[[Carolingian]] majuscule (4th – 8th century A.D.) in contrast to the [[Carolingian minuscule]] (around 780 – 12th century)
*[[Gothic alphabet|Gothic]] majuscule (13th and 14th century), in contrast to the early Gothic (end of 11th to 13th century), Gothic (14th century), and late Gothic (16th century) minuscules.

==Usage==
In alphabets with a case distinction, capitals are used for [[capitalization]], [[acronym]]s, supposed better legibility (see [[ascender (typography)|ascender]]), and [[Emphasis (typography)|emphasis]] (in some languages).

Capital letters were sometimes used for typographical emphasis in text made on a typewriter. However, long spans of Latin-alphabet text in all upper-case are harder to read because of the absence of the [[Ascender (typography)|ascender]]s and [[descender]]s found in lower-case letters, which can aid recognition. With the advent of modern computer editing technology and the [[Internet]], emphasis is usually indicated by use of a single word [[Capitals (typeface)|Capital]], [[Italic type|italic]], or [[bold typeface|bold]] font, similar to what has long been common practice in print. In typesetting, when an [[acronym]] or initialism requires a string of upper-case letters, it is frequently set in [[small capitals]], to avoid overemphasizing the word in mostly lower-case running text. In [[Internet|electronic communications]], it is often considered very poor "[[netiquette]]" to type in [[all caps|all capitals]], because it can be harder to read and because it is seen as tantamount to shouting. Indeed, this is the oft-used name for the practice.

[[Capitalization]] is the [[writing]] of a [[word]] with its first [[grapheme|letter]] in uppercase and the remaining letters in lowercase. Capitalization rules vary by [[language]] and are often quite complex, but in most modern languages that have capitalization, the first word of every [[Sentence (linguistics)|sentence]] is capitalized, as are all [[proper noun]]s. Some languages, such as [[German language|German]], capitalize the first letter of all nouns; this was previously common in [[English language|English]] as well. (See the article on [[capitalization]] for a detailed list of norms).

==Other meanings==
For [[Paleography|paleographers]], a Majuscule script is any script in which the letters have very few or very short ascenders and descenders, or none at all (for example, the majuscule scripts used in the [[Codex Vaticanus]], or the [[Book of Kells]]).

==See also==
*[[All caps]]
*[[CamelCase]]
*[[Shift key]]
*[[Letter case]]
*[[Roman square capitals]]
*[[Small caps]]
*[[Unicase]]

== External links ==
*[http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/Vaticanus/index.html Codex Vaticanus B/03] Detailed description of '''[[Codex Vaticanus]]''' with many images.
*[http://hubel.sfasu.edu/courseinfo/SL03/email_study.htm All-caps is harder to read]
*''[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20374 Capitals], a Primer of Information About Capitalization With Some Practical Typographic Hints as to The Use Of Capitals'' by Frederick W. Hamilton, 1918, from [[Project Gutenberg]]


[[Category:Alphabetic writing systems]]
[[Category:Orthography]]
[[Category:Typography]]

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