Design Nomenclature / Type

Faux small caps

Also called fake small caps, synthesised small caps, scaled caps

Capitals scaled down to approximate x-height. Scaling reduces stroke weight along with height, so they sit lighter and narrower than the lowercase around them and read as a grey patch. The giveaway is stem width: hold a faux small cap against the adjacent lowercase n and the mismatch is immediate.

A two-column comparison headed "Stroke weight against the surrounding lowercase". The left column is titled Faux small caps and reads: capitals scaled to x-height — scaling thins the strokes with the height, so they read lighter and narrower than the lowercase beside them. The right is titled True small caps and reads: drawn at x-height — proportionally wider, stems thickened to match the lowercase, spacing loosened to suit. The small-caps entry's own figure sets the two rows.

In practice

Every browser and layout app will produce these silently when the font has no smcp. Tracking them out helps the spacing and does nothing for the weight, which is the actual problem.

Not to be confused with

How this term connects

OpenTypeSmall capsTrackingWeightFaux small caps
Related Confused with