Creating drop caps

Drop caps are initial caps that hang two or more lines below the first line of a paragraph. The automatic Drop Caps feature enlarges the drop cap characters and runs the paragraph around the drop caps automatically. The typeface and styles match the rest of the paragraph.

To apply drop caps to a selected paragraph, display the Formats tab of the Paragraph Attributes dialog box and check Drop Caps. To specify how many characters to use as drop caps, enter a value from 1 to 127 in the Character Count field. To specify the number of lines the characters are dropped, enter a value from 2 to 16 in the Line Count field.

QuarkXpress example drop cap Creating drop caps

Drop caps are a great way to make text visually distinctive.

Note: Drop caps are measured by percentage rather than by points. When you select a drop cap, the default size is 100%.
Note: You can also create drop caps from the Paragraph Attributes tab of the Measurements palette.
Parent topic: Text and typography

Creating drop caps