Drop caps are one of the details people point to when they say a book looks professionally typeset. They are also one of the easiest to get slightly wrong, and a slightly wrong drop cap is more noticeable than none.
What is a drop cap?
A drop cap is a large initial letter at the beginning of a chapter or section. Its top lines up with the top of the first line of text, and it extends down across two or more lines, which are shortened to wrap around it. The tradition goes back to manuscripts, where an enlarged or decorated initial marked where a new section began.
Its job today is the same: to mark the start of a chapter so clearly that the reader's eye lands in the right place. It is decoration with a purpose, and the purpose is wayfinding.
What kinds of initial letters are there?
There are a few related treatments, and the names get mixed up.
| Type | What it does | Feel |
|---|---|---|
| Drop cap | Sinks into the paragraph, lines wrap around it | Classic, bookish |
| Raised initial | Sits on the first line's baseline and rises above it | Modern, simpler to set |
| Hanging initial | Sits in the margin, outside the text block | Distinctive, needs wide margins |
| Small caps opening | First few words in small capitals, no enlarged letter | Quiet, very common in fiction |
| Drop cap with small caps | Enlarged letter, then the rest of the first line in small capitals | The traditional full treatment |
A raised initial is often the practical choice. It needs no wrapping, so it survives almost any layout, including formats where a true drop cap breaks.
How many lines should a drop cap span?
Two or three lines is the usual range, and three is the classic choice for a book page. One line is not a drop cap at all; four or more starts to dominate the page and suits only very large formats or very short chapter openings.
Whatever depth you choose, a few details decide whether it looks right.
- Align the top of the letter with the top of the first line's capitals, not above it.
- Align the bottom with the baseline of the last line it spans.
- Keep a consistent gap between the letter and the wrapped text.
- Use the same depth in every chapter. A three-line cap in chapter one and a two-line cap in chapter two looks careless.
When should a book use drop caps?
When the book is long, read in order and set for print. Fiction and narrative non-fiction are the natural fit: a reader meets each chapter opening once, and a drop cap makes that moment feel considered.
They work less well in a few cases.
- Chapters that open with dialogue. A quotation mark next to an enlarged letter looks awkward, and enlarging the quotation mark itself looks worse.
- Chapters that open with a short word. *I* or *A* as a drop cap leaves the reader with a large single letter and then a gap.
- Practical non-fiction and documents. Workbooks, manuals and reports are scanned, not read in order. A drop cap there is decoration the reader does not need.
- Every section, not just chapters. Drop caps lose their meaning when they appear on every page.
Book typography basics covers the decisions that matter more than drop caps: line length, size, leading and margins. A book with good body text and no drop caps looks far better than the reverse.
Which typeface should a drop cap use?
Usually the book's title face or the body face at a large size. A serif capital tends to look more at home than a sans one, but the main rule is to choose a letter that is handsome when enlarged. Some faces look clumsy at large sizes, especially those designed for small text.
Decorative initials, with flourishes or illustrations, can suit a fantasy novel or a children's book, but they need to match the book's design throughout. Choosing fonts for a book covers pairing a title face with body text, which is where a drop cap face usually comes from.
How do drop caps work in ebooks?
Unreliably. In an EPUB a drop cap is built with styling that floats the first letter beside the text, and reading systems interpret that styling differently. The same file can show a neat drop cap on one device and a large letter sitting on a line of its own on another. The reader's own font and size settings make it harder still, since the letter and the text it wraps around can change size independently.
Accessibility needs care too. If the first letter is split from the rest of the word in the markup, some screen readers may read it as a separate letter. Making a book people with screen readers can read covers the wider checks.
This is why many ebooks skip drop caps or use a raised initial or small caps opening instead, which degrade gracefully. Converting a designed PDF to EPUB often leaves drop caps as stray single letters, as PDF to EPUB explains.
How do you add drop caps?
That depends entirely on the tool. Dedicated book formatters offer drop caps as part of a chapter style: Atticus vs Vellum compares two that do, and Kindle Create includes them in its themes. Layout software such as InDesign has a drop cap setting on the paragraph. Book formatting software compares the wider field.
Markdown has no syntax for a drop cap. It describes structure (this is a heading, this is a paragraph) and leaves the decoration to whatever turns it into pages. Tools that convert Markdown to PDF through HTML can add one with a stylesheet rule on the first letter of the first paragraph after each chapter heading; tools that go through LaTeX use a package for it. Either way, it is a styling decision applied at export, which keeps the manuscript itself clean.
Chapter openings in bukpress
bukpress has no drop cap setting. A chapter opening gets its emphasis from the heading instead: the title typeface, size and colour you set once for the whole book, a --- line that starts every chapter on a fresh page, and the margins and line height you chose for the body. Its pages are A4, which suits workbooks, handbooks and non-fiction, and for those that plain, consistent opening is what readers expect. If your design depends on drop caps, a dedicated formatter is the better tool.
What you get is a typeset PDF from Markdown, with every font embedded, and on Pro a reflowable EPUB from the same file. Chapter structure comes from your headings, so it is consistent across every chapter by default. How to title chapters covers the heading itself, and the sample book shows real chapter openings.
Common questions
What is the difference between a drop cap and a raised cap?
A drop cap sinks into the paragraph, spanning several lines, with the text wrapping around it. A raised cap sits on the first line's baseline and rises above the text. Raised caps are simpler and more reliable in ebooks.
Should every chapter have a drop cap?
If you use them, yes: every chapter, the same depth, the same face. Consistency is what makes them look designed. Using them on some chapters and not others reads as an error.
Do drop caps work with justified text?
Yes. Justified text is the traditional companion to drop caps in print. The wrapped lines need care, though, since short lines beside the letter justify poorly. Justified or ragged right covers alignment.
Are drop caps old-fashioned?
They are traditional rather than dated. Plenty of new books use them, especially in fiction. A raised initial or a small caps opening gives a similar signal with a more modern feel.