What is the basic Title Case rule?

Capitalize the first word, the last word, and all the major words, and keep the minor words lowercase in between. Minor words are articles (a, an, the), the short coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor), and short prepositions (of, to, in, by, on, at). So "the lord of the rings" becomes "The Lord of the Rings": the leading "the" is capitalized because it is first, but the middle "of" and "the" stay lowercase.

How do AP and Chicago title case differ?

The split is about preposition length. AP Style capitalizes any word of four letters or more, so a long preposition like "Over" or "With" is capitalized. Chicago and MLA lowercase every preposition no matter how long, so the same words become "over" and "with". For "jumping over the moon", AP gives "Jumping Over the Moon" and Chicago gives "Jumping over the Moon". Short words like "of" and "to" stay lowercase in every style.

How does this turn "the lord of the rings" into the right case?

Type it in and the tool reads it word by word. "the" is the first word, so it is capitalized to "The". "lord" is a major word, capitalized to "Lord". "of" is a short preposition in the middle, kept as "of". The second "the" is an article in the middle, kept as "the". "rings" is the last word, always capitalized, so "Rings". The result is "The Lord of the Rings", correct in AP, Chicago, APA and MLA alike.

Does it keep acronyms like NASA and API uppercase?

Yes. Any token that is already all uppercase with two or more letters is treated as an acronym and left untouched, so "a guide to NASA missions" becomes "A Guide to NASA Missions" and "the API of HTML" stays "the API of HTML". If you type an acronym in lowercase the tool cannot know it is one, so write acronyms in capitals in the input and they will survive the conversion.

How is Title Case different from just capitalizing the first letter?

Capitalizing only the first letter is Sentence case, used for body text and most modern headlines: "The lord of the rings". Title Case capitalizes every major word: "The Lord of the Rings". Use Title Case for book, film, song and article titles in formal style guides; use Sentence case for UI copy, email subject lines and casual blog headlines. The tool offers both, plus UPPERCASE and lowercase, as one-click shortcuts.

Does the first word after a colon get capitalized?

Yes, in every style. A colon usually introduces a subtitle, and style guides treat the word after it as a fresh start. So "star wars: a new hope" becomes "Star Wars: A New Hope", with the "a" capitalized even though "a" is normally a lowercase article. The same applies after a question mark, exclamation mark, period, em dash and en dash, so subtitles and two-part titles come out right.

Format a blog post or article headline correctly

You write a headline like "how to write a title that ranks in google" and your CMS leaves it lowercase. Paste it in, pick AP, and get "How to Write a Title That Ranks in Google", small words down, the rest up. It is the difference between a headline that looks drafted and one that looks published, and it takes one paste.

Capitalize a book, film or song title for a citation

A bibliography or works-cited page wants titles in the right case. Switch to Chicago or MLA, paste "the catcher in the rye" or "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind", and the tool keeps the prepositions and articles lowercase exactly as those style guides require, so your references pass a strict editor or a Turnitin-style check.

Clean up an email subject line or marketing header

Marketing copy lives or dies on the header. Drop in "the only guide you need to email open rates" and read it back as a properly cased line that looks intentional in an inbox, on a landing page or in an ad. Use the Sentence case shortcut instead when the brand voice is casual rather than formal.

Fix titles pasted from a spreadsheet or database

Data often arrives ALL CAPS or all lowercase from an export. Rather than retyping, paste a title, get the cased version, and copy it straight back into the cell. The acronym guard means a product code or a brand written in capitals, like "API" or "NASA", survives instead of being flattened to "Api" or "Nasa".

Teach or check the title case rule for a class

Teaching English or editing, you need a clear demonstration of why "of" and "the" stay lowercase while "Lord" goes up. Type an example, switch between AP and Chicago, and the output shows the rule live, a better explanation than a paragraph, and you can share the URL so students reopen the exact example.

Title Case Converter, AP and Chicago Headline Capitalization

Capitalize an English title the way editors do, AP / Chicago / APA / MLA, small words stay down, acronyms kept, runs in your browser

Runs locally
Category Text
Best for Removing repetitive cleanup work from everyday writing and operations.

Title or headline

Style

Caps words of 4+ letters. Short words (a, of, to) stay lowercase.

Title Case (AP)

Type a title above to see it correctly capitalized.

What this tool does

Free title case converter that capitalizes an English headline the way a copy desk would, not the way a naive "uppercase every word" tool does. Pick a style, AP, Chicago, APA or MLA, and the tool capitalizes the first and last word always, capitalizes the major words, and keeps the little ones lowercase: articles like a, an, the; coordinating conjunctions like and, but, or; and short prepositions like of, to, in, by. AP capitalizes any word of four letters or more, so "Over" goes up, while Chicago keeps every preposition lowercase, so the same word stays "over". The word right after a colon is capitalized, hyphenated compounds get each part handled, and all-caps acronyms such as NASA, API and HTML are left alone. Sentence case, UPPERCASE and lowercase shortcuts are one click each, and you can copy the result or share a URL that reopens the exact title and style. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded.

Tool details

Input: Text; The page exposes text boxes, numeric controls, file pickers, or structured inputs depending on the tool.
Output: Live result + Copy; The result area focuses on usable output, with copy, download, or preview actions when supported.
Privacy: Browser-side processing; The main tool logic does not call an external API, so inputs normally stay in the current tab.
Save / share: Shareable URL state; Key settings are encoded in the URL so another person can reopen the same setup.
Performance budget: Initial JS <= 9 KB; No WASM budget is declared, keeping the tool quick to open on mobile.
Best fit: Text · Content Creator; Category and role tags drive related tools, internal links, and quick fit checks.

How to use

1. Input

Paste or drop your content into the tool panel.
2. Process

Click the button. All processing is local in your browser.
3. Copy / Download

Copy the result or download to disk in one click.

How Title Case Converter fits into your work

Use it to clean, compare, reshape, or extract plain text before it goes into a document, CMS, spreadsheet, or prompt.

Text jobs

Removing repetitive cleanup work from everyday writing and operations.
Making text easier to compare, paste, publish, or feed into another tool.
Working with content locally when the text is private or unfinished.

Text checks

Scan for unintended whitespace, duplicate lines, and lost punctuation.
For long text, test the first few lines before applying the whole change.
Copy the final output only after checking the preview.

Good next steps

These links move the current task into a more complete workflow.

Real-world use cases

Format a blog post or article headline correctly
You write a headline like "how to write a title that ranks in google" and your CMS leaves it lowercase. Paste it in, pick AP, and get "How to Write a Title That Ranks in Google", small words down, the rest up. It is the difference between a headline that looks drafted and one that looks published, and it takes one paste.
Capitalize a book, film or song title for a citation
A bibliography or works-cited page wants titles in the right case. Switch to Chicago or MLA, paste "the catcher in the rye" or "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind", and the tool keeps the prepositions and articles lowercase exactly as those style guides require, so your references pass a strict editor or a Turnitin-style check.
Clean up an email subject line or marketing header
Marketing copy lives or dies on the header. Drop in "the only guide you need to email open rates" and read it back as a properly cased line that looks intentional in an inbox, on a landing page or in an ad. Use the Sentence case shortcut instead when the brand voice is casual rather than formal.
Fix titles pasted from a spreadsheet or database
Data often arrives ALL CAPS or all lowercase from an export. Rather than retyping, paste a title, get the cased version, and copy it straight back into the cell. The acronym guard means a product code or a brand written in capitals, like "API" or "NASA", survives instead of being flattened to "Api" or "Nasa".
Teach or check the title case rule for a class
Teaching English or editing, you need a clear demonstration of why "of" and "the" stay lowercase while "Lord" goes up. Type an example, switch between AP and Chicago, and the output shows the rule live, a better explanation than a paragraph, and you can share the URL so students reopen the exact example.

Common pitfalls

Capitalizing every single word. The most common error is "The Lord Of The Rings" with a capital "Of" and "The". Major words go up, but articles, short conjunctions and short prepositions stay lowercase in the middle, so the correct form is "The Lord of the Rings".
Lowercasing the first or last word because it is a small word. "A Tale of Two Cities" keeps "A" capitalized because it is the first word, and a title ending in "for" or "to" capitalizes that word because it is last. First and last always go up regardless of the small-word list.
Assuming AP and Chicago agree on every word. They split on preposition length. AP capitalizes "Over" and "With" (4+ letters); Chicago keeps "over" and "with" lowercase. Pick the style your publication uses before you copy, or a strict editor will flag the difference.

Privacy

The whole conversion, reading each word, applying the small-word list for your chosen style, protecting acronyms, runs as plain JavaScript inside your browser tab. No title text is sent anywhere and nothing is logged. The one thing to know: the shareable URL encodes your title and style in the query string, so a link pasted into chat will record that title in the recipient server's access log. For a confidential headline, use the copy button and paste the text instead of sharing the URL.

FAQ

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Title Case Converter, AP and Chicago Headline Capitalization

What this tool does

Tool details

How to use

1. Input

2. Process

3. Copy / Download

How Title Case Converter fits into your work

Text jobs

Text checks

Good next steps

Real-world use cases

Format a blog post or article headline correctly

Capitalize a book, film or song title for a citation

Clean up an email subject line or marketing header

Fix titles pasted from a spreadsheet or database

Teach or check the title case rule for a class

Common pitfalls

Privacy

FAQ

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