Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

Display Type or Titling Caps

Traditionally, small letterforms and large letterforms in a well-designed typeface differ not just in their height, but in their thick/thin stroke differences, the proportion of the x-height to the cap height of the character, the space between the letters, and the open space in the “counters” (the holes in letters like e, g, or c). But on the computer when you use a large point size, say 128 point, of a regular font, the computer just takes the 12 point size and enlarges it to 128 point. The letterforms start looking a little clunky.

Some expert fonts offer display type (which includes lowercase) or titling capitals. The characters in display typefaces have been specially designed for larger sizes, those above 24 ...