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@sc{text}: The Small Caps Font

Use the @sc command to set text in the printed and the HTML output in A SMALL CAPS FONT and set text in the Info file in upper case letters. Write the text you want to be in small caps (where possible) between braces in lower case, like this:

The @sc{acm} and @sc{ieee} are technical societies.

This produces:

The ACM and IEEE are technical societies.

TeX typesets the small caps font in a manner that prevents the letters from `jumping out at you on the page'. This makes small caps text easier to read than text in all upper case--but it's usually better to use regular mixed case anyway. The Info formatting commands set all small caps text in upper case. In HTML, the text is upper-cased and a smaller font is used to render it.

If the text between the braces of an @sc command is uppercase, TeX typesets in FULL-SIZE CAPITALS. Use full-size capitals sparingly, if ever, and since it's redundant to mark all-uppercase text with @sc, makeinfo warns about such usage.

You may also use the small caps font for a jargon word such as ATO (a NASA word meaning `abort to orbit').

There are subtleties to using the small caps font with a jargon word such as CDR, a word used in Lisp programming. In this case, you should use the small caps font when the word refers to the second and subsequent elements of a list (the CDR of the list), but you should use @code when the word refers to the Lisp function of the same spelling.