Where to Use Small Caps
If you set acronyms in regular all caps, their visual presence is unnecessarily overwhelming. One standard and practical way to use small caps is in acronyms such as FBI, NRC, CBS, or SIMM.
Traditionally, “A.M.” and “P.M.” are set with small caps. If you were taught to type on a typewriter (or if you were taught by someone who learned on a typewriter), you were probably told to set these abbreviations in all caps because there were no small caps on typewriters. But now that you have the capability, you can and should set them properly.
The capital letters in the middle of the sentence call too much attention to themselves. Notice how the small caps blend in with the text. The capital letters for P.M. are much too large—the ...
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