Re: "small caps"

Gary
Date: 09/06/04 

Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 12:05:39 -0500

On Mon, 6 Sep 2004 10:32:27 -0400, "Uncle Mortimer" <lost@sea.invalid>
wrote:

>
><Gary H> wrote in message news:9q3nj0tvqt7n992t5slavv8hqj5c6ji861@4ax.com...
>> On Sun, 5 Sep 2004 17:43:01 -0400, "Uncle Mortimer" <lost@sea.invalid>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >"Gabriele Neukam" <Gabriele.Spamfighter.Neukam@t-online.de> wrote in message news:chfeqe$918$01$1@news.t-online.com...
>> >> On that special day, Kurt, (kurtl@olypen.com) said...
>> >>
>> >> > Small Caps? :-)
>> >>
>> >> (sigh) non-caps, small letters, dunno the proper term.
>> >
>> >Non-capital I would guess, "upper case" and "lower case" are printing (typesetting) terms
>>
>> Yes, I actually saw those cases once (next to some old printing
>> equipment). Also, where would "caps" fit in here? Is "small caps" a
>> printing term too?
>
>Caps is short for capitalization - a writing term adapted for typewriters (and now computer keyboards)

That's what I thought (approximately, "capitals" would be a better
fit), but was unsure after seeing that strange term of "small caps".
It's two words that don't belong together.

> it is
>either "caps on" (shift + letter), "caps off" (letter), or "caps lock" (relieves the need to shift to capitalize letters).

And makes it easier to make annoying posts on usenet.

>You may notice that shift + number is not the same as caps lock + number because only letters can be capitalized.
>

Yes.

BTW, I remember one old computer that had a bug, where CAPSLOCK-Q gave
"q" rather than the expected "Q". This bug did not affect SHIFT-Q
(which did give "Q").

>> >not writing terms
>> >as "capital letters" is.
>> >They are either capitalized or not though some would call non-capitalized letters "small
>> >letters" although they can be made any size you want.
>> >
>>
>> Those "small letters" do tend to be smaller. Notice that the capital
>> letters all use the full height of the line. Most small letters don't.
>
>A small letter (non-capitalized/lower case) in a newspaper headline is very often much larger than the capitals in the story proper.

True, but not those in the same line, so what I said is still correct.
Look at how "B" is larger than "b". Some people even call "B" a "big
B".

>Size refers to point not to case or style (yet font refers to style and point size).
>

Sure. I was just using "size" to mean "size". At actually looks like
some people can't see the simple, nearby things because ther're
looking for the far away, complicated ones.

> 

-- 
110 days until the winter solstice celebration
"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to
hang a question mark on the things you have long taken
for granted." -- Bertrand Russell

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "small caps"
    ... >> printing term too? ... > Death in the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett speaks IN ALL CAPITALS ... I was always told that there is a difference between block letters and capitalized letters. ... that the first letter in a sentence is capitalized while the rest are not (although they are all block style letters). ...
    (comp.security.firewalls)
  • Re: "small caps"
    ... > printing term too? ... Caps is short for capitalization - a writing term adapted for typewriters it is ... You may notice that shift + number is not the same as caps lock + number because only letters can be capitalized. ...
    (comp.security.firewalls)
  • Re: "small caps"
    ... where would "caps" fit in here? ... printing term too? ... Those "small letters" do tend to be smaller. ...
    (comp.security.firewalls)