Smaller footprint for SMD capacitors
The IPC-7351 (2005) document attempts to standardize component footprints.  Manufacturers are not compelled to use the standard, but more and more of them seem to be doing so.

In Section 1.4 of that document, they talk about Density Levels ("Most", "Nominal", and "Least" protrusion).  This refers to how much the land patterns will protrude from the actual point of connection.

Reducing the land pattern protrusions will allow you to pack parts in more tightly, but make it more difficult to get a good solder connection.  For example, with Density Level 3 (Least protrusion), there isn't enough pad to hit with a standard soldering iron tip.  Unless you're really good, you have to reflow them.

For an 0402 component, these are the recommended values for Nominal and Least Protrusion density levels:

 

As you can see, there's quite a difference!

I took these screenshots from a software called Library Expert.  It's free, and quite useful. It creates footprints to the IPC-7351 spec.  It will actually build up the symbols for a number of software packages, e.g. Eagle, OrCAD, Altium, and others.

Good luck!