I have yet to see a good reason for using drop caps (unless it is the year 400, you are creating an illuminated manuscript, and you’re just trying to fit in), but they appear everywhere. Drop caps, where the first letter of a text block is enlarged and “dropped” so that it takes the space of three to five lines of text, violate most of the rules of typographic legibility.
First, in the example above, the individual letters in the word “After” are not the same size, which is poor form in body text. Second, the letters in that word do not share a baseline, which forces the reader to mentally piece together the word rather than reading it fluidly. Third, because of the shape of this particular letter, the drop-cap “A” is actually farther from the “fter” to which it supposedly belongs than it is from “days” in line 2 and “phia” in line 3. Because the “A” is closest to and shares a baseline with “phia” in line 3, it looks like the “A” belongs to the word “Aphia” (there’s a prize for the reader with the best suggested definition of “Aphia”). Readers obviously can figure out which letters belong to which words, but they shouldn’t have to work so hard to do so.
Designers are better served to avoid drop caps and use another method of creating graphic contrast, such as setting the first few words of a text block in small caps, bolding or changing the color of the first few words of a text block, or good, old-fashioned white space.
NOTE: The text in the example above was selected randomly online and just happens to be from the October 30, 2008, Philadelphia Inquirer, reset typographically for the purposes of this post.
I don’t use them because big letters scare me, especially the letter Q. There’s something about that descender makes me nervous. I hate seeing drop caps and clowns.
Okay, all good points. But there’s one thing that the drop cap *does* do on a blog, which is to draw the reader’s eye past all the stuff at the top and focus it on the beginning of the actual content. So maybe you have to mentally piece together the first word, but at least you can quickly find the first word!
Shea: What do you have against the letter Q? I might be offended. Perhaps you fear the descender because you don’t truly know the descender? Because a good interpreter has not facilitated an experience for you to forge warm fuzzy emotional connections with it?
Paul: Your entire entry was so filled with nerdiness that I stand humbled in your virtual presence.
Aphia:
http://www.pathfind.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Programs_Kenya_Projects_APHIA
I’m on the fence about drop caps. They can add graphic flair to text, if used intelligently. I agree with Maraya, that they can draw they eye into the text block. The example shown above with cap “A” is kinda clunky — too much space between the cap itself and the text, would be improved with even-gutter wrap/kerning — and different fonts lend themselves to more elegant solutions. Something that IS in vogue these days is using a thumbnail photo or other graphic in the place that formerly might have been occupied by drop cap, and wrapping text around it… Or using a humongous drop cap as a completely graphic element, in situations where it makes sense to do so…
Of course, I live near a Benedictine monastery, so maybe I have some hidden biases.
Drop cap “A” doesn’t bother me! We see what we “expect” to see – and that big ole’ A doesn’t get in my way one bit. Life is too short….get over it!
I hate drop caps too – I’m always trying to add that letter to every word that occurs to the right of the drop cap – of course I guess you could just consider it a new way to create new words like “aphia”. (Oh, and thanks to Paul and Shea for a new place to “rant” about graphics.)
It seems all designers have their pet peeves. Some tell me they can’t stand Comic Sans or the ever-present Papyrus typeface. Others pick at the use of gradients (gradual color or value transitions) or other irritants.
I believe all of these strong opinions are not without foundation – generally taken from the poor use, over-use or through indoctrination by an instructor. However, I think it’s hard to hold to a general statement or manifesto condemning the use of particular design elements. There may be a time when a drop cap (or initial cap), for example, may be very appropriate/acceptable. I try to leave my options open and let the problem dictate the solution (while keeping in mind what disasters I’d like to avoid).
Repeats … just like TV in December.
IBD rocks!
Two reasons to use dropcaps. The first was already mentioned: it draws the reader’s eye to the content. The second is that sometimes you want a way to “break up” the content without something like a sub-heading or an otherwise needless line.