Re: implementation of FIRST-LETTER - possible problem

Chris Croome (chris@atomism.demon.co.uk)
Mon, 29 Sep 1997 16:49:04 GMT 

From: Chris Croome <chris@atomism.demon.co.uk>
To: www-html@w3.org
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 16:49:04 GMT
Message-ID: <3430d6de.534766@post.demon.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <199709291351.OAA04596@imbolc.ucc.ie>
Subject: Re: implementation of FIRST-LETTER - possible problem

On 29 Sep 1997 14:51:43 +0100, Peter Flynn
<pflynn@imbolc.ucc.ie> wrote:

>Chris Croome writes:
>
>   1)	When the first paragraph is a quote, e.g. "In my
>   experience, browser support for CSS is..." In this case BOTH
>   the " and the first letter should be counted at the
>   FIRST-LETTER. Will this be the case?
>
>See my articles on dropped caps under the banner of _Typographers'
>Inn_ in several successive issues of _TeX and TUG News_ (1:3, 1:4,
>2:1, 2:2, 2:4, see [1]). In particular in 2:4 I noted:
>
>   [...] Anne McCaffrey's _Crystal Line_ in the US paperback edition
>   (Del Rey/Ballantine, 1992, ISBN 0-345-38491-1) and was amused to
>   see the opening of the first chapter with a 3-line dropped
>   cap[...]. Quite correctly, all three opening quotes and the A were
>   dropped into the paragraph, but this takes up over a third of the
>   measure. Some days you just can't win...

I've not come across this journal - is it on the web?

>The text in question was a "quote within 'a quote'", as the first word
>of the chapter! On reflection, I think I would prefer only the first
>letter dropped in thse circumstances, and the quotation marks left in
>the bodytext size of type and tucked in around the letter.

Perhaps, but how are the browsers going to do it - I suspect
that the would just drop the first quotation mark and that
would look really odd.

>   2)	When the page is in the form of questions and answers,
>   e.g. Q: What do you think of browser support for CSS... In
>   this case both the Q and the : should be counted as the
>   FIRST-LETTER. Again will this be the case?
>
>I would never ever use dropped caps that frequently, the page would
>look like a parish bazaar. Stick to chapter starts.

I meant for the first question only, I agree if would look
fairly bad done for all of them.

> But to answer the
>question on colons: I'd keep the colon in the regular size and tuck it
>in tight against the large cap.

Again, maybe, but my situation is that I'm putting a
magazine on the web and I want to follow the "house style"
fairly closely and this involved the dropped caps appearing
in the way I first proposed.




Chris

chris@atomism.demon.co.uk
http://www.atomism.demon.co.uk/