A drop cap is an oversized opening letter that sinks into the text block, with its baseline sitting one or more lines below the first line of the paragraph. A raised cap is the same letter aligned on the first baseline, rising above the line instead of sinking into it. Two and three lines deep are the common depths, and no authority mandates a specific one.
The W3C's CSS Inline Layout specification is the clearest on the distinction, because it has to be precise enough to implement. A dropped initial has "a baseline at least one line lower than the first baseline of the paragraph". A raised initial "sinks to the first text baseline". There is even a third form, the sunken cap, which "both sinks below the first baseline, and extends above the first line of text".
How Deep
There is no standard depth, and any source claiming otherwise is inventing one.
The W3C describes the practice rather than prescribing it: "Two- and three-line drop initials are very common." The one authority that gives conditions is Theodore De Vinne, writing in 1904, who held that "for the ordinary book the plain two-line initial of standard width is in most favor", with a three-line initial preferable "when the text type is small".
So: two lines for most books, three when the body text is small or the opening needs more presence. Beyond four the letter starts to dominate the page rather than open it.
The Alignment Rule Most People Get Wrong
A drop cap has to align at two points, not one. Most online guidance mentions only the top.
De Vinne states both: "the top of a two-line initial should line with the top of the types in its following first line of text, and the foot of that initial should also exactly line with the foot of the second line of text." He is blunt about the consequence of missing: "An initial that does not neatly fill the gap made by lines of type is not a merit but a blemish."
The W3C spec names the same two anchors in modern terms: cap-height of the initial to cap-height of the first line at the top, and the initial's baseline to the baseline of the Nth line at the bottom.
The other thing that goes wrong is the left edge. Letters are drawn with side bearings, so a letter set at display size carries a visibly larger gap on its left than the text below it. The cap needs optically aligning to the margin rather than mechanically. De Vinne's period solution was physically "cutting off this shoulder"; the modern equivalent is a negative indent. Open-sided letters like A, L and Y are the worst offenders, and he warns they "do make ungainly patches of white".
What Follows the Cap
Setting the first word or first few words in small capitals after the initial is a long-standing option, and it helps bridge the size jump between the display letter and the body text. De Vinne preferred it: the letters after a large initial "may be small capitals or full capitals. Small capitals should be preferred when they make perfect lining."
New Hart's Rules treats it as one design among several, noting that "in some designs large and small capitals are used for the first word or line of a chapter". It is an option, not a requirement.
One specific case is worth knowing because it is easy to get wrong. Where a chapter opens with a single-letter word such as I or A, New Hart's Rules gives the rule for large-and-small-cap openings: "If the first word is a single capital letter (for example I, A), then the second word is printed in small capitals, with no further capital." That rule is stated for the caps treatment rather than specifically for drop caps, but the underlying problem is the same, which is that a one-letter word gives the eye nothing to land on.
Drop Caps in Ebooks
This is where the advice diverges sharply, and you should know both positions.
The DAISY Consortium, which sets accessible publishing guidance, is unambiguous: "the best advice is to avoid using drop caps." Their objections are concrete. Assistive technology can fail to read the first word when the initial is separated from the rest of it. Image-based caps pixelate under zoom. And the enlarged letter disrupts the reading flow.
Amazon takes the opposite line, documenting working CSS for drop caps in Kindle files while requiring relative units rather than fixed ones, and warning that caps "should not be illegible or cut off". Note also that Amazon's Enhanced Typesetting says it will "interpret most drop caps from existing source content", meaning your styling may be overridden.
One technical trap applies everywhere. The old CSS approach, ::first-letter, silently swallows any punctuation before the letter, so a chapter opening on a quotation mark gets a giant quote mark instead of a giant letter. The modern initial-letter property is the correct tool.
Doing This in Deckle
Deckle's first-paragraph style offers four options: Drop Cap (the default), Raised Cap, Small Caps, and Plain. That covers both forms described above as distinct settings rather than a single toggle.
The drop cap depth is set in lines and defaults to 3. You can also set its colour, whether it uses the heading font, its letter spacing, and its right margin, which is the gap between the cap and the text beside it. There is a top-padding control for fine vertical alignment, which is the adjustment described above.
Because the whole point is optical fit, judge it in the PDF preview at real size rather than in the editor. A drop cap opens the first paragraph of a chapter, so it interacts with where chapters start and with the chapter opening's folio treatment, which moves to the foot of the page to avoid the heading.
Common Mistakes
- Aligning only the top of the cap. The foot must land on a baseline too, or the letter leaves a visible gap.
- Leaving the default left side bearing. A display-size letter needs optical alignment to the margin, not mechanical.
- Using a drop cap where the first word is one letter. I or A alone gives the eye nothing; set the following word in small caps.
- Opening a chapter on a quotation mark with
::first-letter. The mark becomes the drop cap. - Assuming three lines is the standard. No authority states a required depth.
- Carrying a print drop cap straight into an ebook. Accessibility guidance advises against them entirely, and platforms may override your styling.
FAQ
Q: Drop cap or raised cap? A: A drop cap suits dense text because it occupies space the text block gives up anyway. A raised cap suits open, airy settings. De Vinne judged the raised form "not suitable for compact composition".
Q: How many lines deep should it be? A: Two or three. Two is the traditional default for a normal book, three when the body text is small.
Q: Should the first word be in small caps? A: Optional. It helps bridge the size difference, and it is the traditional preference, but no source requires it.
Q: Should the cap be italic if the opening text is italic? A: There is no rule. Chicago's editors say so directly: "Truly, there is no rule." De Vinne disagreed, holding that "a roman initial before italic letters is not pleasing". Judge it by eye.
Q: Do drop caps work in EPUB?
A: Technically yes, with initial-letter. Whether you should is contested: accessibility guidance advises avoiding them, while retailers document them as supported.