Capitalization

Use consistent, intentional capitalization to improve clarity and align with product, system, and user interface conventions. Capitalization should support readability while accurately reflecting official names, technical requirements, and UI text.

Headings and Titles

Use title case for page titles, section headings, and link text that matches a page title. Otherwise, use sentence case for link text.

When using title case:

• Capitalize the first and last word and all major words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns).
• Lowercase articles (a, an, the).
• Lowercase coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for).
• Lowercase short prepositions (four letters or fewer), unless they are the first or last word.

Lists and Body Text

• Use sentence case for items in bulleted and numbered lists.
• If a list item begins with a term followed by a colon and definition, capitalize the first word after the colon. For example:
• Name: A unique name for the resource.

Acronyms and Initialisms

Write acronyms and initialisms in all caps, unless the project or product uses a specific stylization. Examples include “API”, “HTML”, and “eBPF.”

Commands, Code, and Technical Identifiers

Follow the capitalization used by the project or system for commands, filenames, paths, flags, and code examples, even when they appear at the beginning of a sentence or inside a title. For example, “How to Check File System Consistency with fsck.”

UI Elements

For UI elements such as buttons, labels, menu items, and field names, use the exact capitalization shown in the interface.

Products, Brands, and Proper Names

Preserve official capitalization for products, brands, companies, software, and other proper names, even when it conflicts with standard capitalization rules. For example, “macOS”, “DigitalOcean Spaces,” “systemd,” “UNIX.”

For capitalization of DigitalOcean products, see the DigitalOcean products page of this style guide.