Drop Caps
Add elegant drop caps to your chapter openings for a classic, professional look.
What Are Drop Caps?
A drop cap is an oversized first letter of a chapter or section that drops below the baseline of the first line. It's a centuries-old typographic tradition found in manuscripts and printed books. Drop caps signal the beginning of a new chapter and add visual elegance to the page.
How Sappar Renders Drop Caps
Sappar uses a precision typographic engine to render drop caps. The drop cap letter is measured against the body text font metrics so it spans exactly the right number of lines (typically 2–3). The surrounding text wraps tightly around the letter, maintaining consistent spacing. Sappar handles kerning between the drop cap and the following text automatically.
How to Enable Drop Caps
- Go to Format → Theme settings.
- Under "Chapter Openings," toggle Drop Caps on.
- Choose the number of lines to drop (2 or 3).
- Optionally select a different font for the drop cap letter.
Drop caps work best with serif fonts. If your body text uses a sans-serif font, consider choosing a serif font specifically for the drop cap.
Limitations
- Drop caps only apply to the first paragraph of each chapter.
- Chapters that begin with dialogue (quotation marks) may need manual adjustment.
- Very short opening paragraphs (fewer than 2 lines) will not display a drop cap.
- Drop caps are rendered in PDF export but not in EPUB (most e-readers handle drop caps with their own CSS).
Examples
A 3-line drop cap using Cormorant Garamond on a body set in Source Serif. The letter "T" drops into the paragraph, with text wrapping cleanly around it. You can preview drop caps in real time using the Preview panel.