Elegant Drop Caps - how to…?

[RNKLN]

Hi,

I consider myself a beginner in DTP. In order to improve my skills I'm doing a number of trainings on LinkedIn Learning. The person inspiring me the most is somebody called John McWade. In one of his courses he shows how you can include elegant drop caps in your documents. One of the things he shows is how you can put the initial words of the first line close to the drop cap in order to get a more elegant result. I've looked for ways to automate this in Publisher using a Paragraph Style and Character Styles, but haven't found a way to automate this. I've included a couple of screenshots to show what I mean. Would be nice if this effect could be created automatically using styles or whatever. Any suggestions?

 

[firstdefence]

Take a look at my reply to this post 

 

[RNKLN]

Thanks! I'll have a look.

[RNKLN]

Well, since I'm not making any progress using my current knowledge and the documentation, I've decided to attach a sample document and see if any of the forum members can come up with an idea. In addition to the current state of the document, I've also tried to manually tighten the first line of text (S WE APPROACHED…) putting the cursor left of the 'S'. The result is a tightening of the first three lines, not just the first one. 🙁

Note that I've added a Drop Cap character style to avoid having to write 'Verdun' without a capital 'V'. Without that I had two alternative results: small caps in the initial words with a normal cap for the 'V', or small caps for everything, including the drop cap 'A'. There's probably a smarter way of getting the right result. 😊

Diary of a U-Boat Commander.afpub

[firstdefence]

I think in some instances a more lateral approach is required and a rewriting of the sentence is a simpler avenue to walk down.

"The noise of the artillery became more intense as we approached Verdun, I had heard the distant sounds once or twice earlier in the day. The noise grew from a low murmur into a more forboding sound..." 

[jmwellborn]

@firstdefence  I am being a very persnickity pain this bright Sunday morning — shouldn’t that be a semicolon after Verdun to make a complete sentence?  😨  Your solution makes perfect sense, otherwise, and is easy, to boot.😎

[RNKLN]

Haha, @firstdefence. The text I've used actually is a given. It comes from a book called Diary of a U-Boat Commander, supposedly written by Stephen King-Hall. Not sure if I'm the right person to re-write it. At the same time, the guy I was referring to - John McWade - considers the T drop cap one of the few exceptions for which no special action is required. Not sure though if anyone wants to start all sections with just T's, E's, H's etc. Other examples he uses are for the O and the L, which also require special treatment (according to him, at least).

If currently not possible in Publisher, it's not a big deal. I just was interested to see if it is possible and, if yes, how to achieve the effect.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, jmwellborn said:

I am being a very persnickity pain this bright Sunday morning — shouldn’t that be a semicolon after Verdun to make a complete sentence?

I would say so, Jennifer! I’ve become much more accepting of the ‘comma splice’ than I used to be, but this isn’t the right place for such a thing.

On a side note, the word ‘foreboding’ looks very peculiar without its ‘e’.

[jmwellborn]

@Alfred  oops.  Persnickity is as persnickity does😖 and it might have been a plan for me to read a bit farther!   

[firstdefence]

You see, I write the script and you add the comedy, I reckon we could make a mint...

I think mine version sounds better hahaha!

I'm going in fore another try...

[firstdefence]

Just had a kerninfest.

[jmwellborn]

@firstdefence  

Before I try to get ur goat ...
Remove the "e" in what you wrote ...
I'll raise my hat once more to you.
By George you've got it!  Easy too!😊

[RNKLN]

On 3/7/2021 at 8:02 PM, firstdefence said:

Just had a kerninfest

This shows progress, indeed. Was it a manual exercise or done via text styles?

[thatGuy]

You could do it by duplicating the text frame, then

- frame 1 - keep the first letter, delete everything else

- frame 2 - delete the first letter, disable drop caps

- frame 1 - enable text wrap, edit wrap contour

it still takes a couple clicks but it's easier and overall more interactive to get even distances I think

Diary of a U-Boat Commander_.afpub

[firstdefence]

2 hours ago, RNKLN said:

This shows progress, indeed. Was it a manual exercise or done via text styles?

Unfortunately it was manual.

[RNKLN]

OK. I'm familiar with that. You could very well achieve the desired effect (as shown in the original samples) by adding one or a few more nodes. Will work if it is about a few situations. If you have dozens it's not ideal.

[Wosven]

If you really search elegance, avoid such tricks when working with drop caps for few lines. Elegance is simplicicty, and you achieve this in layout mostly with items arrange in neat external square or rectangle. For example, you can have a page full of adds, and it'll look fine if the exterior is regular. If it look like skyscrapers or uneven children's teeth, there's a problem.

This sort of trick is best suited for large and really large capitals used as drop caps. With a suitable font, you can achieve interesting results. But not with less than 5-6 lines drop caps. Nice designsa prinsipally made of invisible lines that structure and organize the elements in the page. When suddenly something like those few characters are out of line, there's a problem, sometime difficult to spot...

[dkenner]

> I consider myself a beginner in DTP. In order to improve my skills I'm doing a number of trainings on LinkedIn Learning. The person inspiring me the most is somebody called John McWade.

You are about two weeks ahead of me, I just found this thread before asking the exact same question, from exactly the same LiL course, but with the letter L.  

McWade is excellent.  Going through all of his courses.  One piece of feedback that I have sent is to include AP in with the inDesign references if at all possible going forward.

Now to figure this thread out...

Ahhh - 

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by dkenner
Added additional information. Link to YT demo on one way.