It could be the first word (sometimes the first two, if the first one is a single letter), this often includes more words if it's a proper name, or the first semantic unit ("A GREEN HUNTING CAP" is fine, "A GREEN HUNTING cap" is no), or, as I said, the first complete line, and this means that if the last word in the line is broken across lines, you get one half in caps, the other in lowercase.
Personally, I'd prefer smallcaps instead of caps, but I've seen caps in printed books too, something like:
[size=+7]A[/size] [size=-1]GREEN[/size] [size=-1]HUNTING[/size] [size=-1]CAP[/size] squeezed the
top of the fleshy balloon of a head.
As most things, it gets awkward and ugly when it's badly done, that's probably what you are experiencing. But as a formatting resource, it's legitimate.
|