How to Apply an Initial Drop Cap in InDesign

An initial drop cap at the beginning of a story or news article created in Adobe InDesign adds visual interest to a newsletter, magazine or newspaper. Some desktop publishing designers choose to use drop caps in more than one paragraph if an article is lengthy to help break up the sea of gray words.

Instructions

1. Highlight the letter or letters (you can add a drop cap to more than one letter in InDesign) that you want to change.

2. Click on the Paragraph palette.

3. Type the number of lines you want to apply into the "Drop Cap Number of Lines" icon (or use the arrow keys). The icon appears in InDesign as a capital "A" nestled into a paragraph, which is represented by lines.

4. Press enter or return.

5. Apply a stroke, fill or both to the drop caps if you wish. You can also change the color and tint.

Tips & Warnings

• Change the font of your drop cap letter(s) to something different than the rest of the paragraph text to create contrast.

• Use the Story Editor under "Edit" in the InDesign menu to experiment with different drop caps and see your work before you make changes.

• Delete the drop cap by typing a zero into the "Drop Cap Number of Lines;" don't just delete the letter(s).