Capitalization After a Colon in Titles

Title case restarts after every colon

For the input “a guide: the path from here,” every Tool Packer profile begins the result “A Guide: The Path.” AP, APA, and the New York Times-labeled baseline continue with “From Here,” while Chicago and MLA use “from Here” because their internal treatment of the later preposition still applies. The important shared answer is the uppercase The immediately after the colon.

Tool Packer locates words and inspects the separator before each one. If that separator contains a colon, the word is classified as the first word of a title or subtitle. That boundary decision occurs before the profile’s minor-word decision, so a, an, the, and, with, or another listed word starts with a capital at that position.

A title colon is not a universal prose rule

Tool Packer’s sentence-case mode converts the same input to “A guide: the path from here.” It recognizes sentence starts rather than treating every colon as a subtitle separator. Current editorial guidance can capitalize after a colon when what follows is a complete sentence or a specially introduced passage, while other constructions remain lowercase; the exact prose decision belongs to the selected style and context.

Choose Title Case when the colon separates a main title and subtitle or another title segment. Choose Sentence case for ordinary prose, then review the colon construction manually if exact publication compliance matters. The converter cannot infer whether a colon introduces a subtitle, a complete independent sentence, a list, an explanation, a time, a ratio, or data such as a URL merely from the character itself.

• Title mode: deterministic boundary after a colon.
• Sentence mode: no automatic title restart.
• Ordinary prose: evaluate the construction under the governing guide.

Similar punctuation does not always create the same boundary

Tool Packer also restarts title capitalization after an em dash and a line break. Therefore “the plan—an honest review” becomes “The Plan—An Honest Review” in every profile. The project does not assign that role to an en dash, so “the plan–an honest review” keeps an lowercase after the visually different mark. A semicolon, slash, comma, and hyphen likewise do not act as title boundaries.

This distinction protects ordinary compounds and punctuation from becoming accidental subtitles, but it means copied typography matters. An em dash is U+2014, an en dash is U+2013, and a hyphen-minus is U+002D. If a result looks surprising, turn on explanations and inspect the source character instead of judging only by its width on screen.

• Colon, em dash, or line break: project boundary.
• En dash, hyphen, semicolon, slash, or comma: no project boundary.
• Punctuation is preserved rather than normalized to another mark.

Use subtitle casing without overstating compliance

Official style guidance supports capitalizing the opening word of a subtitle in title case, but guides can differ on punctuation, prose after colons, citation presentation, language, and whether a source title should be restyled. Tool Packer applies one explainable title boundary so users can reproduce results; it does not determine typography, add missing colons, or certify that the source is structurally a title and subtitle.

Tool Packer is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publishers associated with its profile names. Follow the required manual, instructor, client, or house guide for final work. Verify foreign-language titles, official names, title-within-title constructions, and any colon used for something other than a subtitle before publishing.

• Preserve the original text for comparison.
• Confirm that the colon actually separates title segments.
• Apply citation and typography requirements separately.