When it comes to the Latin alphabet, our very familiar a–z, capital letters came first, about 2,000 years ago, thanks to the Romans. It wasn’t until the ninth century that those grand capital Roman letter were joined by what we nowadays call lowercase letters. You can read more about that in The Origins of the ABC.
When you wish to increase the typographic volume, you might choose to go all-caps. All caps headlines, titles, headings and even logotypes are able to command attention. But not all capitals are designed equal. So today, we highlight some exceptional typefaces that contain standout capitals – CAPITALS that work especially beautifully in all-caps settings.
image of Latin before caps
image of first carolingian caps
All-caps settings are, at least in messaging and social media have come to be associated with shouting. But all-caps settings have are’t always typographically loud and and vulgar. In fact, they have quite a pedigree. In Latin Europe, before about the ninth century, you typically wrote in all-caps because lowercase Latin alphabet hadn’t yet been invented. By the xxx century lowercase and uppercase alphabets were merged and began to be used as they are today. But then emergence of the Caroline minuscule during the reign of Emperor Charlemagne, evolved from local variations of Roman Half-uncial scripts. Its later adoption by printers in Italy during the latter fifteenth century ensured its legacy and continued use.
Rig Solid???
Antarctican Headline
Lektorat
classic caps: Allrounder Monument – use OO lig
Fenland by Jeremy Tankard
Fenland is one of my all-time favortie humanist sans. It’s way ahead of its time. And its caps, well they give me goosebumps. I mean, than N, and those counters.
Koning Display by Lucas Fonts
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxv xxxxxxxx
Antarctican Headline by Dunwich Type
xxxxxxxxxxx
Moucha by Vibrant Types
xxxxx in three styles, modern, xxxx. Available in static and a pretty handy variable font with weight and xxxxx axes.
Rig Solid by Jamie Clarke Type
For fantastic 3D-effect numerals, look no further than Jamie Clarke’s standout layer font family, Rig Solid. Endless possibilities mixing and matching gradients, layer styles, and colors.
Eckhart Color from ROHH
SCRIPT / Xxxxxx
When thinking cpas, Scripts mught not immediately come to mind but some designers go out of their way to produce special caps for their scripts. Laura Meseguer’s beautiful Magasin swash caps are one such fine example.
capitl tips. some fonts havec capitals spcing built in, but you can use tracking…
NAIAD / Shinntype
LiBeirut / various
LiquorstoreBuzzBuzz
Magnat / Studio René Bieder
Freigeist / Studio René Bieder
Credits: thanks to Stack & Justify for helping out with the specimens.