--- title: "Title Case Converter: AP, APA, Chicago, MLA | Amber Headline" description: "Convert a headline to AP, APA, Chicago or MLA title case, sentence case or start case side by side, with the rule behind every capital letter." url: https://amberheadline.buzz/ --- Title case converter # Title case for AP, APA, Chicago and MLA, side by side Type a headline once and get six versions, each with the rule behind every capital. Words the style guides disagree on are marked with the highlighter. ## Where the four style guides part ways Same headline, four rulebooks. All four styles agree on most of a headline. They capitalize the first and last word, and every noun, verb, adjective, adverb and pronoun, short verbs like Is and Be included. They lowercase the articles a, an and the. The arguments are about the small words that join the rest together. ### Prepositions: length or job? AP and APA go by length: prepositions of three letters or fewer (of, in, on, to, by) stay lowercase and longer ones are capitalized, so With, From and About. Chicago and MLA go by job: a preposition stays lowercase however long it is, so with, between and without. ### Conjunctions and the word to Everyone lowercases and, but, or, nor and for. AP and APA also lowercase so, yet, if and as, being three letters or fewer. MLA lowercases so and yet; Chicago capitalizes them, but keeps to and as lowercase in every use. ### Colons, hyphens and phrasal verbs The first word after a colon starts a subtitle and is capitalized. Hyphenated words get a capital after the hyphen (Self-Driving), except that Chicago keeps the part after a prefix lowercase (Re-election). A short word in a phrasal verb, as in Set Up or Log In, is an adverb, so every style capitalizes it; the converter knows the common ones. Sentence case capitalizes only the first word and names; it is what AP uses for its own news headlines. The full comparison is on the [capitalization rules](https://amberheadline.buzz/capitalization-rules/) page. ## Inside this edition More checks for the line that sells the story. - [Headline length checker](https://amberheadline.buzz/headline-length-checker/): Characters, words and an approximate search-result width, with a preview of where a long title gets cut. - [Headline A/B compare](https://amberheadline.buzz/headline-ab-compare/): Two to four headlines side by side: length, numbers, questions and how consistently each is capitalized. - [Headline word balance](https://amberheadline.buzz/headline-word-balance/): The mix of common, uncommon, emotional and power words in a headline, described rather than scored. - [Capitalization rules](https://amberheadline.buzz/capitalization-rules/): AP, APA, Chicago and MLA title case rules compared in one table, with a word lookup. ## Recommended Two free services for the work around a headline. Website audit · Technical SEO check ### WebTraceCheck A headline is only half of a published page. WebTraceCheck's free website audit lists a page's Open Graph fields and Twitter card metadata, so you can see the title and image a shared link will show. Its technical SEO check is free as well. It also runs a disposable cloud browser for opening unfamiliar links, deleted after each session. [Check a page on WebTraceCheck](https://webtracecheck.com/) Temporary email · No sign-up ### CleanTempMail Studying how other newsletters write their subject lines, or testing the sign-up flow of your own? CleanTempMail gives you a free temporary inbox straight away, with a random or custom address on hundreds of domains. Messages are deleted automatically after 3 days, so your own inbox stays for readers. [Open a temporary inbox](https://cleantempmail.com/) ## Questions **Which title case style should I use?** The one your publication, client or teacher uses. As a rough guide: AP for news sites, blogs and press releases; APA for headings in psychology and social-science papers; Chicago for books and many magazines; MLA for essays in literature and the humanities. If nobody has decided, pick one and use it for every headline. **Why is “with” capitalized in AP but not in Chicago?** AP and APA decide by length: prepositions of four letters or more are capitalized. Chicago and MLA decide by the word's job: a preposition stays lowercase however long it is. The highlighted words in the results are exactly where the styles part ways. **Does the converter know names and brands?** It keeps any word you typed with unusual capitals exactly as it is: acronyms such as NASA, brands such as iPhone or eBay, numbers and web addresses. It cannot tell that “paris” is a city, so in sentence case check names yourself. If your whole headline is in capitals, it is lowercased first and acronyms need fixing by hand. **What is the difference between title case and start case?** Title case follows a style guide, so small words such as of, a and the stay lowercase in the middle. Start case capitalizes every word. No style guide asks for it, but many video titles, buttons and menus use it. **Is my headline sent anywhere?** No. The conversion happens in your browser, and nothing you type is uploaded or saved. Reloading the page brings back the example.