Inserting a drop cap at the start of a paragraph adds visual strength to the page and indicates a clear starting point to the reader.

 
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Here’s how to make and use drop caps in InDesign

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To turn a letter into a drop cap in InDesign, use the Type Tool to highlight the letter with your cursor. 

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Increase the numeric value in the Drop Cap Number of Lines box in the top tool bar.

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Drop Cap Resource: Jessica Hische’s side project called Daily Drop Cap lets you copy and paste HTML code into your website to use any of the drop caps she created. The purpose of this project is to ‘prettify the internet’ (Jessica’s words) and is open for anyone to use in their non-commercial projects. So if you have a blog or a website and want to play with some code to insert a drop cap, visit her daily drop cap website: dailydropcap.com.

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Jessica’s daily drop cap G

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Jessica’s daily drop cap O

 
 
 

R drop cap illustration by Shelley Henseler, G and O drop caps by Jessica Hische