Capitalization
Sentence case is easy to read, and feels way more conversational (vs. title case, which feels very Grand and Self Important). It’s our go-to approach, with only a few exceptions.
Use sentence case
- Board name and section name placeholder text
- Business site and blog post headlines
- Buttons
- Error message titles
- Titles of talks at events
- Form field titles
- Links
- Memo titles
- Menu items
- Microcopy and helper text
- Navigation
- Page titles
- Placeholder text (gray instructional text within form fields)
- Sub-headlines
- Tabs/sections of Pinterest (following feed, more ideas tab, etc.)
Use title case
- Brands: If you must refer to a brand, make sure to capitalize it (“Crock-Pot” rather than “crockpot”) and in the third person use “they” not “it”
- Holidays (you can always Google to double check tricky ones like Father’s Day or Back to School)
- Job titles
- Pin: Always capitalize—it’s a legal thing (see How to use Pin for more!)
- Pinner (Note: Use this sparingly, and ideally not at all. Instead, say “people” or “people on Pinterest”)
- Proper nouns (World War II, Scarlett Johansson), acronyms (NFL, DIY)
- Topics in product UI/New User Activation (ex: Weddings, DIY, Naruto and Anime)
- Generation names (ex: Baby Boomers, Gen X)
Contractions
Use contractions whenever possible to make your work conversational, in UI and blog posts. (“Isn’t” is just warmer than “is not;” always opt for “it’s” rather than “it is.”)
- Don’t use old-timey or made-up sounding contractions like “shant” or “t’wouldn’t,” please.
- Don’t use double negatives like “I won’t bake no cake.”
Hyphenation
According to the AP Style Guide/Purdue Writing Lab (our when-in-doubt go-to), you should
- Hyphenate a phrase when it’s acting like an adjective, coming before a noun
- Don’t hyphenate an entire descriptive phrases
- For a phrase you’re not sure of the hyphenation of...just Google it! Check if its most common usage is hyphenated.
- Use hyphens to connect a prefix to a phrase, when applicable (“pro-Obama”).
Do examples
- AquaNet is a fair-weather wireless network
- Mac has an old-timey whistle
- Mac’s whistle is old-timey
- Is this a cat-friendly desk?
- Is this desk cat friendly?
- Eli is pro-Pinterest
- Eli is anti-Pinterest
Don't examples
- As a wireless network, I find AquaNet fair-weather
- AquaNet is a fair-weather-wireless-network
- Mac has an old-timey-whistle
- Mac let out a very-loud whistle
- Is this desk cat-friendly?
- Eli is anti pro-Pinterest
- Eli is propinterest
Punctuation
Pinterest’s UI is clean, light and modern, which means using as little punctuation as possible. For tips about punctuation for longform writing, refer to the AP Style Guide.
| Punctuation | Rule |
|---|---|
| Ampersand (&) | Don’t use! Use a plus sign if you must. |
| Colon (:) | Use to kick off a list, introduce an explanation or definition, or for editorial emphasis in longer form writing. Followed by a single space. Whether you capitalize the next letter depends on what your information is. DO capitalize if the next word is a proper noun, or you're writing an entire sentence after the colon. Do NOT capitalize if you're writing a fragment after the colon. Sometimes you’ll see a dot used in our UI like a colon in board headers—treat it the same way, and start with a capital letter! |
| Semi-colon (;) | Don’t use—instead, rewrite the sentence or break it in two Use: Lili’s son couldn’t decide between a Superman and Spiderman party; Lili created a Pinterest board to consolidate ideas for the ultimate superhero birthday bash. Don’t use: When Lili’s son couldn’t decide between a Superman and Spiderman party, Lili created a Pinterest board to consolidate ideas for the ultimate superhero birthday bash. |
| Comma (,) | Don’t use the serial comma (boards, sections and Pins vs. boards, sections, and Pins)—see “Oxford comma” below Don’t use in stats, numbers under 100,000 or percentages |
| Ellipses (...) | Don’t use in UI Exception: When we’re communicating that something's in progress / we’re preparing you to wait Finding ideas for you… But even better than ellipses = design delight/animation In longform writing, use ellipses to indicate zapped text ("like this quote from one of our Pinners, "Pinterest makes me feel like I'm in touch with ideas around the world...it makes me feel good."") No spaces on either side of ellipses (“Eliza...and Peggy,” not “Eliza … and Peggy”) |
| Em Dash (—) | Use sparingly to denote a significant break in the sentence or parenthetical aside—don’t over do it, though No spaces! Use this to sign a name in an email. (—The Pinterest team) |
| En Dash (–) | Don’t use—use an em dash (—) instead! |
| Exclamation mark (!) | Use as you would in a real conversation: In sentences that sound like they have an exclamation when you say them out loud, or to introduce ideas that people will be genuinely excited about. Use sparingly! Use: Introducing secret boards! Use: We’re so glad to have you on Pinterest! Don’t use to add pep to inherently unexciting concept or when the tone is out of step with people’s emotions: Don’t use: Here’s how to change your password! Don’t use: You’ve been locked out of your account! |
| Hyphen/dash (-) | Hyphen/dash (-) - Use to show a range of numbers when space is tight (“10-20”) or spell it out in long form (“10 to 20”) To add a significant break in a sentence, use and em-dash instead See Hyphenation section |
| Oxford comma | Ironically, the Oxford comma isn't really used in the UK. Dropping the extra comma not only makes our copy less busy, it also makes it more international. Example: Pins, boards and sections Exception: Use an oxford comma if not using makes the meaning of the sentence unclear Ex: Tiffani posts pictures of every flavor of cupcake recipe she tries—banana, raspberry, chocolate and coconut cupcakes! |
| Period (.) | To keep the UI feeling light and clean, we don’t use periods in headlines, subheads, buttons, menus, between letters of an acronym (USA, not U.S.A.), etc. Don’t use in headlines or subheads or in product UI Exception: If a subhead has more than one sentence (but try to avoid multiple sentence subheads anyhow) |
| Plus sign | Use only if space is tight, as a replacement for “and” Spaces around both sides (“Matt + Evany are the managers”) |
| Quotation marks (“) | If necessary, always use double quotes and not single quotes. “Hello, Dolly, ‘sup,” not ‘Hello, Dolly, ‘sup’ When in doubt, refer to the AP Style Guide about when a title should go in italics (Titanic) or quotation marks (“My Heart Will Go On”) Use sentence structure or bolding in UI to set off a board title rather than quotes, if possible |
| Serial comma | See Oxford comma |