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The New York Times
title-case rules

For newspaper headlines and standing heads.

The New York Times rules

The Times maintains its own internal manual, similar to AP but with editorial nuance.

  1. Capitalize the first and last word.
  2. Capitalize all principal words.
  3. Lowercase articles.
  4. Lowercase coordinating conjunctions.
  5. Lowercase short prepositions — three letters or fewer.
  6. Capitalize longer prepositions.
  7. Capitalize after a colon.

Worked examples

The same set of titles, converted under The New York Times rules. Try them yourself by switching the style pill on the homepage.

Input NYTimes
a study of pangrams in english A Study of Pangrams in English
the rise and fall of empires The Rise and Fall of Empires
how cities adapt to climate change How Cities Adapt to Climate Change
when a stock split is not enough When a Stock Split Is Not Enough

Edge cases we handle

  • Proper nouns — iPhone, JavaScript, NASA stay capitalized correctly mid-title.
  • Hyphenated compounds — handled per NYTimes's specific rule.
  • After a colon — the first word after a colon is capitalized.
  • Acronyms and ALLCAPS runs — preserved as-is.

Try NYTimes title case now.

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