---
name: Petite caps
slug: petite-caps
category: typography
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: Capitals drawn to exactly x-height, shorter than small caps, so they
  sit flush with the lowercase around them.
aliases:
  - name: petite capitals
  - name: pcap
    source: opentype
tags:
  - fonts
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - small-caps
    - x-height
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso: []
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: OpenType font features (MDN)
    url: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Guides/Fonts/OpenType_fonts
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: you need caps that match x-height exactly
---

Petite caps are capital letterforms drawn to the [x-height](/x-height) of the face
they belong to, not merely shrunk to it. The stems are redrawn at the weight the
lowercase around them carries and the letters are widened a little to survive the
loss of height, exactly as [small caps](/small-caps) are, so the result reads as
type rather than as a photographic reduction. What makes them petite is the target
height: the flat top of a petite `A` lands on the same line as the top of an `x`.

That single number is the whole difference from small caps, and it changes what
each is for. A small cap is drawn slightly taller than x-height, commonly five to
fifteen percent, because it has to hold its own beside full
[cap-height](/cap-height) letters: a small-caps heading or a run of small caps set
as its own line of text. Petite caps have the opposite job. Set an acronym in
small caps inside a paragraph and it still reads as a slightly raised, slightly
louder run. Set it in petite caps and it stops announcing itself, because nothing
in the line is taller than anything else. That is why the feature exists at all,
and why it is most useful for abbreviations, units, and currency codes buried in
running text.

The CSS is `font-variant-caps: petite-caps`, with `all-petite-caps` for text that
is already uppercase, and the underlying OpenType tags are `pcap` and `c2pc`. The
catch is supply. Almost no font ships a real petite-caps set: not the widely
installed system faces, and not the families this site sets its own pages in. The
specified fallback when `pcap` is missing is small caps, so a browser substitutes
the small-caps set, or synthesises one by scaling the capitals, and reports
nothing. Two stylesheets asking for different things then render identically,
which is the same silent failure every [OpenType feature](/opentype-features)
request carries. The specimen above is set in Junicode, a scholarly face that does
answer `pcap`, which is the only reason its last two samples are two sets of
drawings rather than one set drawn twice.

So treat petite caps as a decision about a specific typeface rather than a
property of text. Check the family's own feature list first, and if `pcap` is
absent, either use small caps and accept the slight lift, or set the height
yourself: capitals at a reduced font size, tracked out a touch, with the size
chosen so the cap height matches the x-height of the surrounding line. That last
one is a photographic reduction and tends to look like one, its stems too light
for the lowercase beside it, which is the argument for finding a face with the
real set rather than imitating it.