Adding a drop cap in Publish by Zaweba

A drop cap is a large first letter that sinks down into the opening lines of a paragraph. It is one of the oldest tricks in printing, and it still does the same job: it tells the reader exactly where a story begins. In a newsletter, a magazine style leaflet or a menu introduction, it adds a touch of polish for very little effort.

Publish by Zaweba has it under Format > Drop cap. You can set a drop cap of 2, 3 or 4 lines, and it is measured from the font, so the top of the big letter lines up with the capitals of the first line and its baseline lines up with the last line it spans.

Adding one

Click in the paragraph that opens your story, then choose Format > Drop cap and pick how many lines it should drop. The first letter grows to fill that depth and the text of those lines moves over to make room for it. Because it belongs to the paragraph, it moves with the paragraph when the text reflows.

Two lines gives a modest, quiet effect suited to a short piece or a narrow column. Three lines is the classic choice for a newsletter lead story. Four lines makes a bolder statement and needs a paragraph long enough to wrap around it comfortably.

Why the measuring matters

A drop cap looks wrong when it does not line up. If the big letter sits a little higher than the first line, or its foot floats above the baseline of the last line, the eye notices straight away, even if the reader could not say why. Many people end up nudging a separate oversized letter around by hand to get it right.

Publish measures the letter from the font itself, so the top of the cap meets the height of the capitals on the first line and its base sits on the baseline of the last line in the drop. That works whatever font you have chosen, so you can change the font of the paragraph without redoing the drop cap.

Where drop caps work best

Use them at the start of a story, not at the start of every paragraph. One drop cap per article is the convention, and it keeps the effect special. On a newsletter page with three stories, a drop cap on the main one helps signal which is the lead.

They suit body text that is left aligned or justified. A centred paragraph with a drop cap looks odd, because the big letter is anchored to the left while the lines around it move about.

Pay attention to the first word. A paragraph that begins with a quotation mark, a number or a very short word can look awkward with a drop cap. If you can, rephrase the opening so it starts with a solid capital letter.

Fitting it into your styles

If you use paragraph styles, the drop cap paragraph often benefits from a style of its own, such as a Story opening style based on your body text. That way the opening paragraph of each story can share the same treatment, and the rest of the body text is left alone.

Think too about colour. A drop cap in one of the document colours ties the page together and picks up the colour of headings or rules. Because document colours update everywhere they are used, the drop cap will follow if you later change that colour.

Things to check before you print

Look at the drop cap at actual size, not only zoomed in. At small sizes a two line drop can look like a mistake rather than a design. Check that the lines beside the letter are long enough; in a very narrow column, a four line drop can leave only a word or two per line next to it. And check the PDF, which keeps the text real and selectable, so the letter is still part of the word for anyone copying or searching.

A single well placed drop cap makes a page feel considered. In Publish by Zaweba it takes one menu choice, and the font does the lining up for you.