BYTETOOLS

Title Case Converter

Convert any headline to proper title case under AP, Chicago, MLA, APA or New York Times rules — real minor-word lists, not naive capitalization.

Rules applied: first and last words always capitalized; per-style minor-word lists; AP, APA and NYT capitalize any word of 4+ letters; Chicago and MLA lowercase prepositions of any length; the word after a colon, dash or sentence break is capitalized; hyphenated parts follow the same rules.

What is the Title Case Converter?

This Title Case Converter applies the actual capitalization rules of five major style guides — AP, Chicago Manual of Style, MLA 9, APA 7 and the New York Times — rather than blindly capitalizing every word.

  • Five real style guides with per-style minor-word lists
  • First/last word, after-colon and hyphenated-compound rules
  • AP/APA four-letter rule vs Chicago/MLA all-preposition lowercasing
  • Preserves acronyms and mixed-caps words like iPhone
  • Side-by-side comparison of all five styles
  • Batch mode — one title per line

How to use the Title Case Converter

  1. 1

    Paste your title — or several titles, one per line.

  2. 2

    Pick the style guide: AP, Chicago, MLA, APA or New York Times.

  3. 3

    Optionally enable the all-styles comparison table.

  4. 4

    Copy the correctly capitalized result.

About the Title Case Converter

This Title Case Converter applies the actual capitalization rules of five major style guides — AP, Chicago Manual of Style, MLA 9, APA 7 and the New York Times — rather than blindly capitalizing every word. Each style has its own list of minor words to lowercase, its own treatment of prepositions, and the shared rules that the first and last words are always capitalized.

The differences matter: AP and APA capitalize any word of four or more letters, while Chicago and MLA lowercase prepositions however long they are — so “Through” is capitalized in an AP headline but lowercase in a Chicago title. The converter also capitalizes the word after a colon, handles hyphenated compounds part by part, and can preserve acronyms and mixed-caps brand names like NASA or iPhone.

Paste one title or a whole list (one per line) and compare all five styles side by side in a single table — handy when you write for several publications with different house rules. Everything runs 100% locally in your browser, so headlines for unpublished work are never uploaded anywhere and the tool works offline.

Frequently asked questions

Which words are not capitalized in a title?

Articles (a, an, the), short conjunctions (and, but, or) and prepositions — but each style draws the line differently. AP and APA capitalize anything of four or more letters, while Chicago and MLA lowercase even long prepositions like “between”.

What is the difference between AP and Chicago title case?

AP capitalizes every word of four or more letters, including prepositions like “With” and “From”. Chicago lowercases all prepositions regardless of length, so “Between” and “Through” stay lowercase unless they are the first or last word.

Is the first word always capitalized?

Yes — every major style guide capitalizes the first and last words of a title no matter what they are, and this tool applies that rule automatically, including after a colon in subtitles.

How are hyphenated words handled?

Each part is evaluated separately, so “State-of-the-Art Design” capitalizes “State” and “Art” while keeping “of” and “the” lowercase. That matches how AP, Chicago, MLA and APA all treat hyphenated compounds.

Will it wreck acronyms like NASA or brand names like iPhone?

No. By default, words that are all caps or contain internal capitals are passed through unchanged. You can turn this off if your input arrived in all caps and needs full re-casing.

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