Drop cap

An oversized opening letter set into the first lines of text. A door into the page, held over from the manuscript.

The drop cap survives from manuscripts, where an illuminated initial marked the place a text began. Typographically it is an oversized opening letter set into the paragraph's first lines, a door into the page, and a signal that what follows is composed rather than merely posted.

It earns its keep only at true beginnings: an essay, a chapter, a letter. The craft is in the fit, the cap aligned to the lines it occupies, the first words tucked against its shoulder. Scattered through a text as decoration, drop caps stop being doors and become interruptions.