Fancy Drop Caps

Carl Shank • May 13, 2023

Fancy Drop Caps. Drop caps, or technically, versals, are larger letters that mark the start of a major text block. They are often larger than the surrounding text and visibly show off the start of a major textual work. Typographers use drop caps, often for fun and visual appeal, to show off their skill and visual intuition. Drop caps herald back to letterpress and scribal tradition, with many of them coming from calligraphy.


The practice of using drop caps dates back to the medieval times when scribes would embellish the first letter of a manuscript to make it stand out and emphasize its importance. In the early days of printing, drop caps were used primarily for their aesthetic value. Printers would carve elaborate woodcut or metal typefaces to create intricate and ornate drop caps that would catch the reader's eye and add visual interest to the page. Drop caps were often used in religious texts, where they were seen as a way to honor the divine word.


Over time, drop caps became more standardized and simpler in design, but they continued to be used as a way to add visual interest and hierarchy to the page. They were commonly used in books, newspapers, and magazines to indicate the beginning of a new section or chapter, or to draw attention to a particularly important paragraph or quote. In the digital age, drop caps have remained popular and are used in a wide range of documents, including books, magazines, newsletters, and websites. While digital drop caps lack the intricate detail and texture of their printed counterparts, they can still be effective in adding visual interest and emphasis.


Adobe has a new program for creating text based images, called Adobe Firefly (beta). The final display below is a sampling of text made into complex images using this new program. It is an exciting program for graphic artists and designers and even typographers looking for eye-catching display.


I have included below some fancy drop caps and how they might be used in a text opening. Enjoy!


Successful Layout & Design

Font Restoration Mechanics

By Carl Shank • May 13, 2025
Font Restoration Mechanics. Let me begin by giving an example from the world of theology, my first love and profession. Many people, even many non-Christian people, know that we are saved “by faith.” But faith in what or who? Well, faith in God. But this is imprecise. It is faith in Jesus Christ the Bible tells us. But once again, this too can be mistaken as just an intellectual nod of the mind toward Jesus without a real life change or transformation. More detailed biblical discussion, with appropriate distinctions, must be made so that we don’t make “faith” a human, works-based activity we do to please God. Or some existential “experience” with no definable qualities. Digging even deeper, faith saves no one, though it is absolutely necessary for salvation. It is Jesus Christ who saves. Faith becomes an “instrument” of salvation. Theologians have been unpacking this salvation “by faith alone” for centuries. Books and “how-to” sermons have been written and preached and taught here. Do you see the tremendous amount of refinement that “faith” requires? Precise typography claims similar distinctions and refinements in letter development and typeface creation. CARE Typography has been able to restore older hand-drawn fonts from various sources to modern digital typefaces. One of those most prolific sources has been from Alphabets Old and New — For The Use of Craftsmen, With An Introductory Essay on ‘Art in the Alphabet’” by Lewis F. Day, London, 1910.There is a wealth of older fonts shown by Day, one of them being a Roman Forum font from an old Roman Forum engraving. It might be thought that to copy and paste the letters and import them into a font design program, like FontLab’s Fontographer, is simple and rather straight-forward. Not so. From a font designer’s work, the transfer from a screenshot of an old book to a clear and professional open type font (SEE my Blog on “Open Type Fonts” in “More About Fonts” March 9, 2021) takes care and lots of work. It is both tedious and time intensive. The details of such work are often overlooked. Here’s an inside look at such work.

Wide Is Beautiful

By Carl Shank • March 15, 2025
Wide Is Beautiful What makes a typeface beautiful? Aesthetically pleasing fonts or typefaces have differing qualities that make them suitable and beautiful in different contexts and uses. I have chosen six (6) wide or "extended" font faces to highlight the inherent beauty and usability of such type. The samples chosen range from well used Adobe fonts to a specialty antique wide font CARE Typography crafted from an old fashioned type book published by Frederick Nelson Phillips, Inc of New York back in 1945.
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