Title Case vs. Sentence Case: Which Should You Use?
Use sentence case for almost everything you write for a screen: page headings, subheadings, buttons, menus, form labels and email subject lines. Use title case where a convention you can name asks for it: the title of a book, film or article, a publication whose house style sets headlines that way, or a platform such as Apple's that puts button labels in title case. That's the short answer to title case vs. sentence case. The rest of this post explains why, and how to decide when it isn't obvious.
The difference in one example
Title case capitalizes the major words and leaves short function words lowercase: How to Write a Headline That Gets Read. Sentence case capitalizes only what an ordinary sentence would, which is the first word plus any names and acronyms: How to write a headline that gets read.
Same words, different signal. The first looks like the name of something. The second reads like someone talking to you. Notice what neither style touches: names. Back up your photos to Google Drive keeps its capitals in sentence case, because a proper noun's capital is part of its spelling, not a style choice. Our guide to capitalizing proper nouns covers the awkward cases, such as iPhone and eBay.
Who uses which, and where
You don't have to guess what the industry does. Several large organizations publish their rules, and they mostly point the same way.
- Google's developer documentation style guide says to use sentence case in document titles and headings: capitalize the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns.
- The Microsoft Writing Style Guide makes sentence-style capitalization the default for headings, titles and UI labels such as button and checkbox names. It says titles of blog posts, documentation articles and press releases use it too, and keeps title case for product names, book and song titles, article titles in citations and people's job titles.
- Apple's Human Interface Guidelines go the other way for buttons, recommending title-style capitalization with labels like "Add to Cart."
- AP style, the standard in many US newsrooms, sets news headlines in sentence case but capitalizes composition titles (books, films, songs, TV shows) in title case.
- APA style uses title case for a paper's headings and for titles mentioned in the text, then switches to sentence case for article and book titles in the reference list.
Even The Chicago Manual of Style, the reference most associated with title case, acknowledged the shift. Its 18th edition (2024) renamed "headline style" to "title case," noting in the preface that actual news headlines are often capitalized like sentences.
Why sentence case is the better default
It has one rule
Title case depends on a list of exceptions, and the major guides don't agree on the list. Is it "Working From Home" or "Working from Home"? AP and APA say the first, Chicago the second, for reasons we unpack in our comparison of AP, Chicago and APA capitalization. Teams that use title case end up debating prepositions in review comments. Sentence case has a single rule (capitalize what a sentence would), so ten writers produce the same result without a lookup table.
Names stand out
When everything else is lowercase, a capital letter carries information. In "Open Settings and turn on Location Services," the capitals tell you which words are things on the screen. Set the same line in title case, "Open Settings and Turn On Location Services," and every word looks like a name, so the useful signal disappears.
It holds up in long lines
Title case gets heavy as headlines grow. Everything You Need to Know Before Moving Your Team to a Four-Day Week is a wall of capitals; in sentence case the same line reads at speaking pace. Subheadings, which tend to be longer and more conversational than page titles, suffer most.
It travels better
Title case is largely an English-language habit. The MLA, for instance, capitalizes English titles in title case but titles in other languages in sentence case, and says Chicago follows the same principle. If your interface is translated, sentence-case source text gives translators a pattern that works in their language too.
When title case is the right call
- Titles of works. When you name a book, film, album or report in running text, nearly every guide wants title case: The Lord of the Rings, not The lord of the rings. APA's reference list is the notable exception.
- Platform conventions. If you build for Apple platforms, match the system's title-style buttons and menus so your app doesn't look foreign next to the built-in ones.
- An established house style. If a publication has run title-case headlines for years, switching one article just makes that article look wrong.
- Short display text. A three-word section label or a slide title can carry title case without strain. Treat it as a design rule: decide once, apply everywhere.
- Names that happen to be phrases. Plan names, event names and report titles ("Annual Report 2025") are proper nouns, so they keep their capitals even inside a sentence-case heading.
A quick decision table
| Where the text appears | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Blog post titles | Either; we lean sentence case | Microsoft and Google use sentence case; title case is fine if it's already your house style |
| Subheadings (H2, H3) | Sentence case | Longer, more frequent, easier to keep consistent |
| Buttons, menus, form labels | Sentence case (title case on Apple platforms) | Reads as an instruction; match the platform you ship on |
| Email subject lines | Sentence case | Looks like a message from a person rather than a poster |
| Slide titles | Either, consistently | Short display text, so both work |
| Books, films, articles you mention | Title case | Near-universal convention |
| Reference lists | Whatever the citation style says | APA uses sentence case; MLA and Chicago use title case |
Mixing the two on one page
Plenty of sites set the page title in title case and every subheading in sentence case. That's fine as long as it's a rule and not an accident: same element, same style, every time. What looks careless is two H2s on one page in different styles, or a menu where "Account settings" sits next to "Billing History." Pick a style per element type (page title, subheading, button, table header), write it down in one line each, and check new pages against that list.
Converting an existing page
Switching styles is mechanical in one direction and not the other. Going from sentence case to title case is mostly rule-following. Going from title case to sentence case means knowing which capitals belonged to names. Our case converter handles both, with limits worth knowing before you paste in a whole page:
- Sentence case lowercases every word, then capitalizes the first letter of each sentence. It keeps short acronyms like NASA and names with capitals inside like iPhone as you typed them, but it can't tell an ordinary-looking name from an ordinary word, so "Back Up Your Photos to Google Drive" comes out as "Back up your photos to google drive." Put those names back by hand afterwards.
- Title Case capitalizes every word except a fixed list of short ones (articles, "and," "but," "or" and short prepositions). It leaves "iPhone" and "NASA" alone when you type them that way, but if the whole text arrives in capitals it can't tell an acronym from any other word.
Both buttons give you a fast first draft. Neither replaces a quick read for names, brands and acronyms, and title case needs a few judgment calls a word list can't make, which our practical guide to capitalizing headlines walks through.
The rule of thumb
If someone reads the text in the middle of doing something (a button, a label, a notification, a heading inside an article), use sentence case. If the text names a work, or a convention you can point to requires it, use title case. And if you still can't decide, choose sentence case: it's the one nobody has to look up. For the full style-guide rules behind both, the Microsoft Writing Style Guide's capitalization page is a clear, free reference.
