Lorem Ipsum Dropcaps

by: Matthew Bryant 2026-09-16 – 2026-09-28 in progress Administrative certainty: importance: similar posts

The switches
The catalogue
Classic & Roman
Blackletter & Medieval
Calligraphic
Script
- Lobster
Display & Decorative
Licences
Similar Links

This paragraph has no markup of its own. Its initial comes from the post’s Dropcap setting, or from the site default when the post is set to inherit. Change either and this letter changes with it; set the post to None and it becomes an ordinary paragraph. Everything below names its style explicitly, so it stays put whatever the setting says.

The switches

A fenced block with the bare class reuses the document’s style on any paragraph, not just the first one. This is how a chapter break inside a long post gets its own initial.

Ornamented or plain, the initial here is whatever the document is using. Every other paragraph in this section uses different words so the faces can be compared, and this one shows the two-line variant next.

The lines= attribute sets the drop height, from two to six lines. Two lines suits a minor break; four is for a grand opening.

Two lines is the quiet version. The letter sits on the second baseline and the paragraph reads almost like any other, with just enough emphasis to mark a beginning without stopping the eye.

Four lines is the grand version, best kept for the start of a long piece where the extra height has room to settle. On a phone every drop shortens to two lines unless the block names a height explicitly, as this one does.

A paragraph that opens with a quotation mark keeps the mark, small and in the body face, inside the drop:

“Quotation marks that open a paragraph ride inside the drop in a smaller size,” the manual says, “so the letter still lands in the margin where it belongs.” The closing mark is left alone.

Paragraphs that do not open with a letter are left alone, so a date or a number never becomes an initial:

1601 is the year of Paulus Franck’s Schatzkammer, the source of one of the calligraphic faces below. No dropcap here, by design.

Indentation follows the initial. A paragraph carrying a dropcap drops its first-line indent, since the float already sets the line off and the indent would open a gap inside the word. The paragraph after it, this one included, indents as usual; only the paragraph with the letter is affected, and only while a style is active.

To keep the automatic initial off a post’s opening paragraph without touching the setting, wrap that paragraph in ::: {.dropcap-not}. It only matters on the first paragraph, so it is not demonstrated inline.

The catalogue

Each block names its style with ::: {.dropcap-KEY}; the key is shown with the sample. Three faces are new this round: Goudy Initialen among the classics, Deutsche Zierschrift among the blackletters, and Cheshire Initials among the decorated faces.

Classic & Roman

Cinzel

::: {.dropcap-cinzel} — Roman inscriptional capitals.

Among the oldest habits of the printed page is the enlarged opening letter, cut deep into the first lines of a chapter so the eye knows where to begin. Handbooks of the trade warned against mixing more than one initial style in a single work, advice this page ignores on purpose.

Cinzel Decorative

::: {.dropcap-cinzel-decorative} — Inscriptional capitals with flourishes.

Before movable type, the scribe left a blank square at the head of the text and a rubricator came later with red and blue ink to fill it. It is the contrast that matters: the initial should be unmistakably not the body face, or it looks like a mistake in the setting.

Cormorant Garamond

::: {.dropcap-cormorant-garamond} — Elegant Garamond with sharp serifs.

Consider how much work a single letter does here: it announces the start, sets the tone, and holds the margin like a carved post. Just as a title page sets expectations for a book, the initial sets them for a chapter, and a reader notices when it changes.

Playfair Display

::: {.dropcap-playfair-display} — High-contrast transitional display.

Decorated initials survived the transition from manuscript to press because printers wanted their books to look like the ones people already trusted. Keeping the cap on the first line and the foot on the third baseline is the whole craft; everything else is decoration.

Cardo

::: {.dropcap-cardo} — Bembo-style scholarly serif.

Every face in this catalogue was chosen for how it behaves at three lines tall, where hairlines thin out and counters either open up or fill in. Later printers cut initials in wood so they could be reused across editions, which is why the same acorn or arabesque turns up in unrelated books.

IM Fell English

::: {.dropcap-im-fell-english} — Seventeenth-century Fell types.

For a long time the initial was the only illustration a book could afford, and whole workshops specialised in nothing else. Most of these faces come from Google Fonts under the SIL Open Font License; the rest are revivals of historical initials, nearly all of them Dieter Steffmann’s.

Decorated Roman Initials

::: {.dropcap-decorated-roman-initials} — Decorated roman initials.

Gothic initials lean on vertical strokes and tight spacing, which is why they read well even when the surrounding text is a calm roman. Nothing about the letter is special in the source: it is the first character of the paragraph, wrapped so the stylesheet can enlarge it.

Goudy Initialen

::: {.dropcap-goudy-initialen} — Frederic Goudy’s floriated Lanston initials (No. 296); capitals only.

Goudy drew these floriated initials in the early 1900s, and under his direction Lanston Monotype cut the matrices and sold them as Goudy Initials No. 296. The face contains only capitals, so a paragraph opening with a lowercase letter falls back to the body face; open with a capital, as nearly every paragraph does, and the leaves and vines fill the square.

Blackletter & Medieval

UnifrakturMaguntia

::: {.dropcap-unifraktur-maguntia} — Textura-derived fraktur.

Handbooks of the trade warned against mixing more than one initial style in a single work, advice this page ignores on purpose. Ornamented initials sit inside a square, so they are sized to fill the height of three lines rather than to match a cap height.

Grenze Gotisch

::: {.dropcap-grenze-gotisch} — Contemporary blackletter.

It is the contrast that matters: the initial should be unmistakably not the body face, or it looks like a mistake in the setting. Printers called the space the initial occupies the drop, and a three-line drop was the workhorse; two lines for minor heads, four for grand ones.

New Rocker

::: {.dropcap-new-rocker} — Rock-poster blackletter.

Just as a title page sets expectations for a book, the initial sets them for a chapter, and a reader notices when it changes. Quotation marks that open a paragraph ride inside the drop in a smaller size, so the letter still lands in the margin where it belongs.

Fruktur

::: {.dropcap-fruktur} — Playful fraktur-inspired display.

Keeping the cap on the first line and the foot on the third baseline is the whole craft; everything else is decoration. Reading a page set this way is slightly slower at the start and faster after, which is roughly what the device is for.

Astloch

::: {.dropcap-astloch} — Light hairline gothic.

Later printers cut initials in wood so they could be reused across editions, which is why the same acorn or arabesque turns up in unrelated books. Script initials bring their own swashes, and those swashes overrun the letter’s own width, so they are given a wider gap from the text.

Kanzlei Initialen

::: {.dropcap-kanzlei-initialen} — Chancery blackletter initials.

Most of these faces come from Google Fonts under the SIL Open Font License; the rest are revivals of historical initials, nearly all of them Dieter Steffmann’s. The face used here inherits whatever the post or the site setting chose, unless a block like this one names a style directly.

Koenigsberger Gotisch

::: {.dropcap-koenigsberger-gotisch} — Königsberg gothic.

Nothing about the letter is special in the source: it is the first character of the paragraph, wrapped so the stylesheet can enlarge it. Under the hood a paragraph carries one extra span; the choice of face lives in the stylesheet, so switching styles costs nothing.

Grusskarten Gotisch

::: {.dropcap-grusskarten-gotisch} — Greeting-card gothic.

Ornamented initials sit inside a square, so they are sized to fill the height of three lines rather than to match a cap height. Versal letters, the tall painted capitals of medieval books, are the ancestors of everything on this page.

Hansa Gotisch

::: {.dropcap-hansa-gotisch} — Hanseatic gothic.

Printers called the space the initial occupies the drop, and a three-line drop was the workhorse; two lines for minor heads, four for grand ones. Woodcut initials were often signed with a tiny mark hidden in the foliage, the engraver’s only claim on a book that named the printer alone.

Hermann Gotisch

::: {.dropcap-hermann-gotisch} — Hermann gothic.

Quotation marks that open a paragraph ride inside the drop in a smaller size, so the letter still lands in the margin where it belongs. Xylography, the art of cutting images into wood, gave the early press nearly all of its ornament, initials included.

Westminster Gotisch

::: {.dropcap-westminster-gotisch} — Westminster gothic.

Reading a page set this way is slightly slower at the start and faster after, which is roughly what the device is for. Years of use wore the wooden blocks soft at the corners, and a worn initial is one way scholars date an unsigned printing.

Deutsche Zierschrift

::: {.dropcap-deutsche-zierschrift} — Rudolf Koch’s 1919 decorative blackletter.

Koch drew Deutsche Zierschrift for the Klingspor foundry between 1919 and 1921, a blackletter loosened into something closer to a pen hand, and the capitals carry flourishes that hang below the drop the way Koenigsberger’s do. Unlike the framed initials it comes with a full lowercase and figures, so it works as a text face as well as an opening.

Calligraphic

Berkshire Swash

::: {.dropcap-berkshire-swash} — Swashed roman capitals.

Script initials bring their own swashes, and those swashes overrun the letter’s own width, so they are given a wider gap from the text. Zeal for decoration comes and goes; the plain roman initial of the nineteenth century was a reaction to exactly the kind of page this is.

Romantik

::: {.dropcap-romantik} — Romantic decorated script capitals.

The face used here inherits whatever the post or the site setting chose, unless a block like this one names a style directly. Among the oldest habits of the printed page is the enlarged opening letter, cut deep into the first lines of a chapter so the eye knows where to begin.

Coelnische Current

::: {.dropcap-coelnische-current} — Cologne Kurrent hand.

Under the hood a paragraph carries one extra span; the choice of face lives in the stylesheet, so switching styles costs nothing. Before movable type, the scribe left a blank square at the head of the text and a rubricator came later with red and blue ink to fill it.

Paulus Franck Initialen

::: {.dropcap-paulus-franck-initialen} — After Paulus Franck’s 1601 calligraphic initials.

Versal letters, the tall painted capitals of medieval books, are the ancestors of everything on this page. Consider how much work a single letter does here: it announces the start, sets the tone, and holds the margin like a carved post.

Script

Lobster

::: {.dropcap-lobster} — Bold retro script.

Woodcut initials were often signed with a tiny mark hidden in the foliage, the engraver’s only claim on a book that named the printer alone. Decorated initials survived the transition from manuscript to press because printers wanted their books to look like the ones people already trusted.

Display & Decorative

Rye

::: {.dropcap-rye} — Western wood-type display.

Xylography, the art of cutting images into wood, gave the early press nearly all of its ornament, initials included. Every face in this catalogue was chosen for how it behaves at three lines tall, where hairlines thin out and counters either open up or fill in.

Emblema One

::: {.dropcap-emblema-one} — Inline outlined capitals.

Years of use wore the wooden blocks soft at the corners, and a worn initial is one way scholars date an unsigned printing. For a long time the initial was the only illustration a book could afford, and whole workshops specialised in nothing else.

Monoton

::: {.dropcap-monoton} — Art-deco lined display.

Zeal for decoration comes and goes; the plain roman initial of the nineteenth century was a reaction to exactly the kind of page this is. Gothic initials lean on vertical strokes and tight spacing, which is why they read well even when the surrounding text is a calm roman.

Limelight

::: {.dropcap-limelight} — Art-deco high-contrast display.

Lettres Ombrées Ornées

::: {.dropcap-lettres-ombrees-ornees} — Shaded, ornamented French capitals.

Acorn Initials

::: {.dropcap-acorn-initials} — Initials wreathed in oak leaves and acorns.

Arabesque Initialen

::: {.dropcap-arabesque-initialen} — Initials on arabesque grounds.

Typographer Woodcut Initials

::: {.dropcap-typographer-woodcut} — Woodcut-style initials.

AnnStone

::: {.dropcap-annstone} — Carved, stone-look capitals.

Cheshire Initials

::: {.dropcap-cheshire-initials} — Scanned Victorian decorated initials.

Cheshire Initials were scanned from a Victorian specimen by House of Lime, each capital wound about with tendrils inside its square, and the lowercase keys simply repeat the capitals, so this face never falls back whatever letter opens the paragraph. Like the other framed initials it is sized to fill the drop rather than to match a cap height.

Licences

The Google Fonts faces are under the SIL Open Font License. The historical initials are Dieter Steffmann’s, distributed as freeware for private and commercial use; Goudy Initialen came by way of 1001fonts and Deutsche Zierschrift from dafont. Cheshire Initials is House of Lime’s, under the 1001Fonts Free For Commercial Use licence, which permits conversion to web formats and embedding. Every face ships with its licence text beside it.

Series

Part of the series: Lorem Ipsum⁠