How to make small text
- Type or paste your text. Small caps, superscript and subscript update as you type.
- Check the gray line under each style. It lists the letters and numbers in your text that have no small version in that style. Those stay full size, so rewrite the phrase or pick another style if the gap shows.
- Copy and paste. Press Copy on a row, then paste with Ctrl+V, Cmd+V on a Mac, or a long press on a phone.
Small text pastes anywhere that takes plain text: Instagram and TikTok bios, Discord names and messages, captions, comments and chats. It cannot change your actual text size on a website, and it will not work in usernames, which only accept plain letters and numbers.
Three kinds of small text, and the letters each one is missing
There is no small alphabet in Unicode. What small text generators do is borrow letters that were added for other jobs, mostly phonetics and math, and those sets have gaps. This is what each style can and cannot do:
| Style | Example | Sits | Missing or borrowed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small caps | sᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘs | On the line, as tall as a lowercase x | Capitals and lowercase give the same result. s and x use the normal lowercase letter, q is borrowed from ǫ (an o with a hook), and there are no small numbers. |
| Superscript | ˢᵘᵖᵉʳˢᶜʳⁱᵖᵗ | Raised, like a footnote | No q in either case. Capitals C, F, S, X, Y and Z use the lowercase form. Numbers 0 to 9 and + − = ( ) are all there. |
| Subscript | ₛₘₐₗₗ | Lowered, like the 2 in H₂O | Only 17 lowercase letters (a e h i j k l m n o p r s t u v x), no capitals at all. Numbers 0 to 9 and + − = ( ) are all there. |
So the word "quick" works in small caps, loses its q in superscript and loses both q and c in subscript. Subscript is best for numbers and short formulas; small caps is the only style that covers a whole sentence.
Where these letters come from
Most small capitals were added to Unicode for the International Phonetic Alphabet, where ʀ, ɢ and ɴ stand for sounds made at the back of the throat, and for older phonetic systems that used the rest. The raised letters are modifier letters, also from phonetics: a raised ʰ marks a puff of air after a consonant. The small numbers and the lowered letters sit in the Superscripts and Subscripts block, made for formulas like x² and H₂O. Nobody designed them to match each other, which is why small text can look uneven: in many fonts the raised i and the raised n are drawn at slightly different sizes.
Good uses for small text
- A quiet tagline. Small caps under a normal name look editorial: ɪʟʟᴜsᴛʀᴀᴛᴏʀ · ʟᴏɴᴅᴏɴ.
- Units and formulas in plain text. m², 10³ or CO₂ in a caption, a message or a spreadsheet cell, where you cannot format text. This is what superscript and subscript digits were made for, and they display almost everywhere.
- Ordinals and footnotes. 1ˢᵗ, 2ⁿᵈ or a small ¹ after a claim, with the note below.
- Gaming and Discord names. A tag in superscript after a name, like Nova ᵗᵗᵛ, keeps the name readable.
- Aesthetic captions. One line of tiny text between symbols, such as ⋆ ˢᵐᵃˡˡ ᵗʰⁱⁿᵍˢ ⋆, under a full-size first line.
For bigger effects, the Instagram fonts page shows 28 styles side by side, and the cursive font generator covers script.
Real small text in Word, Google Docs and HTML
In documents and on websites you can make text small with formatting instead of symbols. It keeps every letter, spell check and screen reader support:
| Where | Superscript | Subscript | Small caps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word for Windows | Ctrl+Shift+= | Ctrl+= | Ctrl+Shift+K |
| Word for Mac | Cmd+Shift+= | Cmd+= | Cmd+Shift+K |
| Google Docs | Ctrl+. (Cmd+. on a Mac) | Ctrl+, (Cmd+, on a Mac) | No shortcut: pick a font with small caps |
| HTML and CSS | <sup> | <sub> | font-variant-caps: small-caps |
A note on design: true small caps are drawn by the type designer at the same weight as the capitals. The fake kind, produced when a font has none and the app just shrinks the capitals, looks thin and spindly. Fonts made for text, such as many on Google Fonts, include real ones.
Accessibility and search
To a screen reader, small text is a string of phonetic and math symbols. It may read "latin letter small capital a" for each letter, spell the word out or say nothing. Search engines and in-app search do not match it to the plain word either, so a bio written entirely in small text is close to invisible.
Use small text for a tag, a unit or one decorative line. Your name, what you do and how to reach you should stay full size and plain.
Methodology and limits
- How it converts
- Each letter, digit and the signs + − = ( ) are replaced with a small look-alike from fixed lookup tables built from the Unicode code charts: small capitals from the IPA Extensions, Phonetic Extensions, Latin Extended-B and Latin Extended-D blocks (s and x have no small capital in common fonts, so the tool uses the lowercase letters, which are the same height), raised letters from Spacing Modifier Letters and Phonetic Extensions, and small digits and lowered letters from Superscripts and Subscripts.
- Missing letters
- For each style, the tool lists the letters and digits of your text that have no entry in that style's table. Capitals that map to a lowercase small form are not listed, because they still come out small.
- Device check
- On load, the tool draws a test string in each style on a hidden canvas and hides styles your device cannot draw behind "Show them anyway". The check describes your device only.
- Privacy
- The conversion runs in your browser. Your text is not stored, and it is only shared with DEMARCA if you choose to include it in an enquiry and submit the form.
- What it does not do
- It does not change font size, and it cannot fill the gaps: Unicode has no superscript q and no subscript capitals.
Sources
- Superscripts and Subscripts code chart, the Unicode Consortium
- Phonetic Extensions code chart, the Unicode Consortium, for small capitals and raised letters
- Spacing Modifier Letters code chart, the Unicode Consortium
- The IPA chart, International Phonetic Association, for the phonetic use of small capitals
- font-variant-caps, MDN Web Docs