Re: When is a first letter not a :first-letter?

David Walbert wrote:

 > For "normal typographic practice" the main use case would be something
 > like a drop cap, and I'd never make a numeral into a drop cap. But best
 > practice in English is if your sentence starts with a number to spell it
 > out rather than using numerals -- which means it's a moot point whether
 > the numeral is a "first letter" for styling purposes; styling that first
 > numeral would be a questionable presentation of bad editing.

There is also the rule that numbers less than ten
should always be spelled out, so /if/ one were to
treat digits as letters for the purposes of "first-letter",
one would (in documents where this rule is observed)
be affording special treatment to the first of a sequence
of digits rather than the first and only digit ...

Philip TAYLOR