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The TeX font catalogue doesn't allow you to see which fonts have real small caps. Some fonts do not have real small caps (e.g. any of the mathdesign ones). But some do (computer modern and therefore lmodern and cm-super...)

I have restricted this to fonts that come with TeXLive, but I guess answers about other standard LaTeX distributions (MikTeX etc) wouldn't be out of place.

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2 Answers

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Two fonts with accurately designed small capitals are Palatino (\usepackage[sc]{mathpazo}) and Libertine (\usepackage{libertine}).

No. 2, p. 17 of the 2005 volume of the "TeXnische Komödie" (the journal of the German-speaking TeX community DANTE) includes an article by Ralf Stubner and Walter Schmidt about the design of "real small caps" and oldstyle figures for the Palatino. The text is in German, but see page 21 for a lineup of "real" and "faked" small capitals.

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Dang, doesn’t work with fontspec. – Konrad Rudolph Sep 8 '10 at 14:13
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I believe kpfonts also has real small caps. – Seamus Jan 27 '11 at 11:28
What about "TEX Gyre Pagella", which seems to be a heavily expanded version of URW Palladio (A Palatino clone)? – drozzy Mar 26 '12 at 15:08
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LaTeX does not fake smallcaps, so any font that gives you smallcaps has real smallcaps.

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I refer you to section 4.2.1 of this document: ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/mathdesign/mathdesign-doc.pdf It's not LaTeX doing the faking, it's the font designers. – Seamus Sep 8 '10 at 12:33
Try loading the \mathpazo package first with and then without the sc option. The latter case seems like faked smallcaps to me. – lockstep Sep 8 '10 at 12:36
The documentation agrees with you. The sc option uses family pplx. – TH. Sep 8 '10 at 12:40
Very bad, I though no TeX developer would dare to commit such a typographic crime! Still those are solitary cases, and are the exceptions not the rule. I this question was which fonts provide fake smallcaps, then it would make more sense. – Khaled Hosny Sep 8 '10 at 14:01
@Seamus: Hmm? The way I read that, it looks the fonts in question are commercial fonts, and in order to get real small capitals you have to buy associated "expert" fonts. How are the people behind the "mathdesign" package "the font designers" in question -- it seems like they only did the math fonts, whatever that is supposed to mean... – SamB Nov 30 '10 at 17:24
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