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Recipe 1.4 Setting a Simple Initial Cap

Problem

You want a paragraph to begin with an initial cap.

Solution

Mark up the paragraph of content with a p element:

<p>Online, activity of exchanging ideas is sped up. The 
distribution of messages from the sellin of propaganda to the 
giving away of disinformation takes place at a blindingly fast 
pace thanks to the state of technology...</p>

Use the pseudo-element :first-letter to stylize the first letter of the paragraph, as shown in Figure 1-7:

p:first-letter {
 font-size: 1.2em;
 background-color: black;
 color: white;
}

Figure 1-7. A simple initial cap
figs/csscb_0107.gif


Discussion

The CSS specification offers an easy way to stylize the first letter in a paragraph as a traditional initial or drop cap: use the :first-letter pseudo-element (:first-letter isn't supported in most browsers, including Internet Explorer 4 and 5 for Windows, Netscape Navigator 4, and Internet Explorer 4.5 for Macintosh).

Wrap a span element with a class attribute around the first letter of the first sentence of the first paragraph:

<p><span class="initcap">O</span>nline, activity of exchanging ideas is sped 
up. The distribution of messages from the selling of propaganda 
to the giving away of disinformation takes place at a blindingly 
fast pace thanks to the state of technology...</p>

Then set the style for the initial cap:

p .initcap {
 font-size: 1.2em;
 background-color: black;
 color: white; 
}

Initial caps, also known as versals, traditionally are enlarged in print to anything from a few points to three lines of text.

See Also

The CSS 2.1 specification for the :first-letter pseudo-element at http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/selector.html#x52; for more information on initial caps in general, see http://fonts.lordkyl.net/fonts.php?category=vers.

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